Open and Shut: International Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

International Law

Open and Shut

Issues associated with Freedom of Information (FOI) and privacy legislation in Australia as well as privacy issues generally.

Post Frequency: 4/day

Last Entry: October 30, 2020 at 10:02:02

Much deserved recognition for AustLII

Posted on June 15, 2010
Congratulations to the Australasian Legal Information Institute on winning the award from the Internet domain name administrators for Australia and New Zealand for the best openness initiative for Austlii , the online legal public library service. AustLII won on the basis of best practice for free access, high usage- close to a million hits a day- and for being a model adopted by others...

A Button and a Missen for Faulkner and Georgiou

Posted on June 15, 2010
Congratulations to Minister Faulkner and Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou on receiving the Integrity Awards from the Accountability Roundtable. Deserved but no surprise, although the fact there were 17 nominees will give rise to some head-scratching.

Now you see it online now you don't

Posted on June 15, 2010
Then there's this strange but true story Minister backs 'error' explanation by Michael West in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald about the Australian Securities and Investment Commission purging hundreds of exemption orders relating to filing company reports from its public database-apparently because details posted for at least seven years were not meant to be made publicly available.

While Irish eyes are prying, who's looking at the public record?

Posted on June 15, 2010
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/irisheyes97/..Staying in the North Atlantic and with digital information for a moment, John Lee in FOI'd again for Irish Central, details the exploits of Gavin Sheridan who is using FOI and the internet to open up to scrutiny and publicise aspects of Irish government operations that haven't seen much of the light of day...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Nine words have powerful effect on Ombudsman

Posted on June 10, 2010
NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour has followed up with a special report to Parliament Removing nine words - Legal professional privilege and the NSW Ombudsman , his so far futile attempts and those of a parliamentary committee to have removed unique limitations in legislation that give an agency power to refuse his office access to information on this ground in the course of an investigation...

MacDonald report out, but hard to find

Posted on June 10, 2010
Today's papers reveal more about the MacDonald saga in NSW and "a Dubai connection" following his resignation as minister and member of parliament last week over travel expenses, with the Premier yesterday tabling a report (without attachments which the Premier said contain personal information about individuals) by the Director General of her department...

Evidence from "Trance bought " no help in TCard public interest immunity claim

Posted on June 09, 2010
The only (unintended) light note in this judgment of Justice Einstein in the NSW Supreme Court on a public interest immunity claim by the State of New South Wales was the reference to one of the witnesses, Mr Nicholls, "currently acting as Deputy Director General of the Department of Trance bought and infrastructure" [at 38 and probably corrected by the time you get to read it]...

NSW Information Commissioner on target with $4 million

Posted on June 09, 2010
The Office of NSW Information Commissioner was allocated $4 million for 2010-2011, the figure committed by then Premier Rees a year ago, with an additional $0.5 million for capital expenditure in this week's state budget. The revised estimate of expenditure for the current start up year is $2...

1 November extra special this year

Posted on June 07, 2010
From PM&C :"The Governor-General has proclaimed 1 November 2010 as the day the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 commences. The new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will be established from that date and the majority of measures in the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Act 2010 will also commence on 1 November 2010...

Intelligence secrecy sacrosanct

Posted on June 07, 2010
The cone of silence that surrounds Australian intelligence organisations, in the name of national security, is in the news with a long term resident to be deported on ASIO's say so, but without being able to know and answer the allegations against him, and an academic taking on National Archives over refusal of access to assessments of the situation in East Timor 35 years ago that summarise intelligence reports during the Indonesian invasion and occupation...

Waterford on integrity

Posted on June 07, 2010
Jack Waterford, Editor-at-Large Canberra Times, wrote a scorching piece "Rudd's race to the bottom" (published 2 June but no link available), denied a wider audience for some unknown reason as neither the Times nor Fairfax National Times posted it online...

Most parliaments fail modern standards on transparency of interests and entitlements

Posted on June 06, 2010
There is plenty of gory detail around about government in NSW with two more ministerial resignations on Friday, bringing to four the number of frontbenchers to resign in the last two weeks. The Premier herself is now caught up in the saga, and three inquiries are underway, including a referral to the ICAC...

Gov 2.0 a hive of activity in some places

Posted on June 02, 2010
Lots of buzz in parts of the Gov 2.0 world with the Expo in Washington last week, including a panel session on Australian developments featuring Nicholas Gruen and Senator Kate Lundy among others, which seems to have attracted a small but impressed crowd...

Ministers' media plans off FOI limits

Posted on June 01, 2010
Cute as it might sound, this knock back reported in The Age today of a freedom of information application for Victorian government ministerial media plans is probably well based in law:The Office of the Premier knocked back a freedom-of-information request from The Age for the media plans, ruling that the documents are exempt because they contain material unrelated to department business...

Trust me with your details, I'm a politician

Posted on May 31, 2010
www.musiczoo.com Liberals' battle plan to win key marginal seats in The Advertiser last week reported that Liberal South Australian Senator Alan Ferguson had sought "personal profiling information" from up to seven local councils in Adelaide's north. One council helpfully passed news of the application to the former mayor who happens to be the Labor Federal Member for the area, who appears to have passed it on to the paper...

Oh dear...

Posted on May 31, 2010
There are plenty of potential targets on the transparency and accountability front at the moment but Alan Moir in the Sydney Morning Herald gives the puppet theme, the NSW Premier and excessive secrecy another run today. Come 1 July cartoonists will struggle with "GIPA" which just won't have the same ring...

Drug secrecy law trumps FOI

Posted on May 31, 2010
An Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision involving an application for documents concerning the listing of the drug Strattera on the Commonwealth Government Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, while unremarkable in terms of the law and its interpretation and application, raises several important issues...

Legal privilege should not stand in Ombudsman's way

Posted on May 30, 2010
NSW Ombudsman Bruce BarbourSean Nichols cracked the front page with "Labor shuts off access to secrets" in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday and the paper follows today with an editorial "The watchdog barks back" about an issue the NSW Ombudsman has raised with the government for years without success: the limitation in the Ombudsman's general powers of investigation on access to an agency's documents that are claimed subject to legal privilege...

Note to PM: "FOI=administrative chaos"

Posted on May 25, 2010
16 May. Note for Prime Minister from Secretary of PM&C:Freedom of Information legislation would result in administrative chaos.. departments keeping dual filing cabinets."20 May. Handwritten note to Prime Minister from Secretary PM&C marked "not for file": "Were I not under threat of my advice being made public I would be questioning with you this whole legislation...

Open government job no state secret

Posted on May 24, 2010
I have had a couple of exchanges with people who heard that the Federal Freedom of Information and Privacy commissioner jobs-part of the new system yet to commence with the Information Commissioner at the top- had been advertised recently but couldn't locate the ads...

Campbell and a cause of action for breach of privacy

Posted on May 24, 2010
I imagine racing off to court is the last thing on David Campbell's mind at the moment.The current uncertain state of the law law wouldn't suggest any clear claim of action for breach of privacy. There's nothing defamatory about any allegations I've seen, and truth is a defence in any event...

Premier Keneally gives the word on opening up

Posted on May 23, 2010
A good and strong message from NSW Premier Keneally to ministers, ministerial,staff and public servants about what's expected come 1 July with the commencement of the Government Information (Public Access) Act in this memorandum dated 14 May, and given wider circulation in Matthew Moore's article in today's Sydney Morning Herald...

"Right to know" about Campbell has Channel 7 making news

Posted on May 23, 2010
Plenty of opinion and even some social analysis out there arising from the decision by Seven Network News to out now former NSW Transport Minister David Campbell and plenty more to follow, I'm sure. Politicians differ on the question, so too do senior journalists who have opined so far...

FOI awareness and alphabet soup

Posted on May 23, 2010
Twenty eight years on since our first law arrived, and even among the 400 interested enough to show up on a wet Saturday in Sydney to a discussion on Press Freedom and the Public Right to Know, its still a puzzle. Before the session started at the Sydney Writers' Festival on Saturday I was amused to hear two people sitting behind me puzzling over the meaning of the program description of Michael McKinnon as "FOI Editor, Seven Network...

Lively interest in right to know

Posted on May 23, 2010
At the session on Saturday on Press Freedom and the Public's Right to Know (packed, with over 400 people), excessive secrecy and government attitudes and barriers to disclosure came in for the inevitable serve. Mike Carlton suggested things are getting worse not better, citing suppression orders in the courts as a particular trend in the wrong direction...

NSW ministers-even the standards are opaque

Posted on May 21, 2010
We might be hearing more than we need to know about former NSW Minister for Transport David Campbell but there are large gaps in our knowledge about the standards of conduct and integrity of ministers in the NSW Government. This extract, with emphasis added to the last sentence, is from an Issues Paper on lobbying (page 22) released last week by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (more about lobbying in another post...

Gadens Lawyers on FOI Reform legislation

Posted on May 20, 2010
This summary from Gadens Lawyers of the Federal Freedom of Information Reform legislation isn't bad, and the table of exemption provisions is helpful, although the article doesn't cover much beyond changes to exemption provisions. FOI reforms: introduction of a new public interest test paves the way for increased disclosure By Megan Valsinger-Clark and John Dalzell of Gadens Lawyers, Sydney On 13 May 2010 the Senate passed two bills relating to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act)...

McKinnon's Open Queensland picture not so pretty after all

Posted on May 20, 2010
Michael McKinnon FOI Editor, Seven Network might be taking back some of those fine words of praise for Premier Bligh and Queensland's approach to open government. In an article in yesterday's Courier Mail under the headline "Sordid deal makes a mockery of open government" (no link- the CM didn't post in online) McKinnon picks up from an article earlier in the week that had raised concern about a cabinet style exemption for the Brisbane City Council...

Testing the limits of privacy and public office

Posted on May 20, 2010
The resignation of NSW Minister for Transport David Campbell after revelations about aspects of his private life once again raises the issue of what if any right to privacy those in public life can expect. The answer appears to be very little. Campbell is accused of no wrong doing, but having presented himself as one type of person presumably for political advantage, the argument is that the media have a responsibility to test such claims and to publish in the public interest information that shows deceit...

Hansard mix up on FOI Reform bills leads some (one?) of us astray

Posted on May 19, 2010
We all know you shouldn't believe everything you read, but news that a speech in Hansard-the record of parliamentary debate- was the wrong speech comes as a surprise. I had a phone call yesterday from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that my posts ( here, here and here) about what was "said" or "not said" in the Second Reading speeches on the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) bills in the Senate last week had sounded some alarm bells in Canberra (well, at least among those managing this legislative process...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Two New USCIS Training Centers To Open In North Texas
The Dallas Morning News reports today that two regional training c...

A Mosque, Open Space and Eminent Domain
United States District Court Judge Peter G. Sheridan issued&...