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Monday, June 03, 2013

NSW cabinet documents

Sean Nicholls in Fairfax papers on Saturday reminded NSW Premier O'Farrell of freedom of information commitments made in Opposition that haven't been heard of again in the two years since the government was elected:
... the ''proactive'' release of contemporary cabinet documents was a recommendation of a 2009 Ombudsman's inquiry into freedom of information laws. O'Farrell, as opposition leader, told parliament: ''The Coalition will implement the Ombudsman's recommendations regarding the proactive release of certain cabinet information.'' He also said: ''We believe that the quarantine period on cabinet documents should be reduced to the completion of two terms of Parliament - that is, eight years. In other words, we strongly believe that cabinet information should be out of the public domain for only eight years.''
NSW was first to put a 10 year limit on the application of the FOI act to cabinet documents way back in 1989. There things have stayed while Queensland, the ACT and South Australia have nudged a little further.

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