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Sunday, June 05, 2016

Michael McKinnon on stage in US

ABC Freedom of Information Editor Michael McKinnon speaking recently at Columbia School of Journalism FOI@50 Conference (26.00-36.00) provides a rundown on his FOI experiences in Australia. Mostly positive particularly about culture change in Queensland.

But at 1.26-1.29 in answer to a question pours a bucket on those who headed the Office of Australian Information Commissioner, says with regard to the decision to defund and abolish the office in 2014 we "had no problem with that", laments the decision to reverse this in the 2016 budget, and holds out hope for a post election reform package that focuses on giving those who run the OAIC the same security of tenure as a judge. 

The last point is fair enough but those leading up to it certainly don't represent the views of all journalists who know their FOI, or others of us of similar ilk.

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