In what one expert has likened to a plot from the political satire programs Utopia or Yes Minister, a report detailing ways to improve the processes by which the Tasmanian government can be more transparent to the public is released — with the suggested improvements blacked out in page after page of redactions.
Tasmania 's Right to Information Act, similar to other jurisdiction's freedom of information laws, was put in place to "increase the accountability of the executive to the people", however in practice, the RTI process has been criticised as being too slow and the decisions made regarding the release of information being inconsistent or arbitrary.
First off, he sought the minutes from the meetings. That took a lot of persistence and about a six-week wait. Dr Snell believes the problem is not necessarily the state's RTI laws, but the culture of how they are applied. One section noted the process is "impacted by some officers who maintain an attitude against disclosing information … despite the RTI Act requiring that this not be the case".It appears to be a view shared by those who authored the discussion paper, which notes the "successful performance of RTI is impacted by some officers who maintain an attitude against disclosing information".
Both the Labor and Greens parties went to the last election with policies to strengthen RTI and transparency laws.Tasmania's Integrity Commission has warned politicians not to speculate about which MP is under investigation. But an integrity expert says it is a problem of its own making."They deserve to have that information in the public domain, not have it hidden because it's politically inconvenient.
Redacted Redact Right To Know Right To Information Request Secrecy Utopia Tasmania Secretive Freedom Of Information Rick Snell
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