HIDDEN SECRETS

REQUESTS made under Right to Information laws are being refused by Tasmanian Government officials more often than almost every other state.

And Tasmania also has the lowest percentage of RTI decisions made within the statutory time frame, new figures reveal.

University of Tasmania expert Rick Snell labelled the figures “extremely disappointing”.

“The [2009] Act was designed to trigger a change in attitude, culture and approach,” he said. “Clearly it hasn’t.”

RIGHT to Information requests are being refused by the State Government more often, with the state’s performance in the “bottom half of the league table” for access to government information compared with the rest of the country.

Requests for access to information were refused in 17 per cent of cases during 2015-16, an increase from 12 per cent the previous year.

Tasmania had the thirdhighest refusal rate in the nation, behind the Northern Territory (20 per cent) and Queensland (19 per cent).

Victoria and WA refused 3 per cent of applications in full.

Tasmania also had the lowest percentage of RTI decisions made within the statutory time frame, 20 working days after an application is accepted, at 63 per cent.

In comparison, Victoria’s rate was 93 per cent.

Laws in that state require a decision be made no later than 30 calendar days after the request is received.

University of Tasmania right to information expert Rick Snell said the figures were “extremely disappointing”.

“I think you would say looking at the statistics we are in the bottom half of any league table,” Associate Professor Snell said.

“I think you would express that as a major disappointment of the Right to Information Act of 2009.

“The [2009] Act was designed to trigger a change in attitude, culture and approach. Clearly it hasn’t.”

The figures show Tasmania had the highest percentage of applications reviewed by the ombudsman, at 4.1 per cent.

Associate Prof Snell said under-resourcing of the Tas- manian Ombudsman’s office was at the core of the problem.

He has called for immediate funding for an additional three RTI officers in the ombudsman’s office for two years to clear the backlog of reviews.

According to the last ombudsman’s annual report reviews take about 230 days to complete, and there was a backlog of 51 reviews at the end of 2016-17.

Labor leader Rebecca White called on Premier Will Hodgman to make changes to ensure the government was genuinely open.

“Tasmanians can have no faith in their government if it is not prepared to release data in full when it is requested by the Opposition, media or members of the public,” Ms White said.

“The Liberals were caught out manipulating the RTI process in the last term of government and they’re off to a shocking start this term.”

The Government was contacted for comment.