Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a former lawyer and union official, and I have worked in the mining industry, I am not sure where that places me. It would not be at the top, although I was a teacher for a long time. As I said, we have to work hard if we want to protect the integrity of our democracy. To paraphrase a US patriot from another century, the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. That is why the Rudd government made an election commitment to restore trust and integrity to our political system. As well as bringing greater accountability to the area of political donations and gifts, the Rudd government is also improving laws concerning freedom of information. We are doing this because we want to make it easier for all people, including the media, to access information and promote greater openness and transparency in government.

The bill before the House repeals the power under the Freedom of Information Act and the Archives Act to issue conclusive certificates. These certificates are issued to support exemptions to refuse access to documents. They can be used by a minister to refuse access to documents, and it is the kind of system that promotes secrecy, which is not what good government is about. Unfortunately this was the system we inherited, but it is not the system that the Rudd government wants to keep. Instead, all decisions to claim exemptions will be subject to a review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Obviously this is much fairer. We are not just relying on a whim or a capricious minister. Instead, there will have to be a defendable decision. Further, where conclusive certificates have been issued to protect documents previously, for example by former Liberal and Labor governments, these will be revoked when a request for access to those documents is received. Old applications will not automatically be revisited. However, an applicant who has had access refused can now make a new request. It does not mean access will be granted automatically as there may still be very valid reasons for refusing access in the first place. But refusal cannot just be at the whim of a minister. The reasons, obviously, have to be defendable.

This bill also contains safeguards to ensure that sensitive information remains protected. For example, access may be refused where a document falls within an exemption category such as information which would affect personal privacy or damage national security, defence or international relations. I think every sane and reasonable person would understand and appreciate that there is some information which rightly remains in confidence, and certainly matters of security and personal privacy should be treated as such. In fact, this bill contains a specific measure to exempt from FOI any document that has originated with, or has been received from, an intelligence agency. This bill represents just the beginning of the Rudd government’s efforts to transform government culture from one of secrecy to pro-disclosure, to openness and to transparency—all of those good things that make democracies healthy. I look forward to debating broader reforms to FOI in the near future. What we are talking about today heralds a new era for Australian government as the bill removes one unnecessary roadblock to accessing information. I thank the Special Minister of State and his predecessor for their work on this bill and I commend it to the House.

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