PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW

THE PUBLIC has a right to know what governments are up to. This isn’t some fanciful statement of philosophical ethics – it is a plain legal fact. And it is for this reason Ombudsman Tasmania’s annual report makes for disconcerting reading.

Not only did it contain the headline figure – Tasmanian state government agencies are 750 per cent more likely than their Victorian and NT counterparts to refuse to release any government documents in response to a right to information request – it also revealed an even more worrying fact.

In 2019- 20, the Ombudsman overturned 20 out of the 21 cases where a state government department refused to release information to the public.

To fully explain what is happening it’s worth running through the process.

First, journalists or a member of the public pay the state government an application fee to request to see documents they want to view.

It’s generally about $ 40. Then they wait. There are statutory time frames designed to prevent the government from dragging its feet and hoping people forget about the issue but, as the Ombudsman’s report noted, these time frames are frequently breached.

After an often very lengthy waiting period the government department hands over the requested documents – often there’s another fee to pay to see what they’re willing to release.

At this point the documents arrive, usually they’re partly redacted which means some of the information is blacked out with the government arguing privacy or commercial in confidence. And the government can use reasons like this to simply release no information at all.

Once a decision to withhold some, or all, of the information is made that call can be appealed to Ombudsman Tasmania.

And it is in these cases where just one of 21 decisions to withhold information was upheld in 2019- 20.

Now here’s the worst part. When confronted with these facts yesterday, Premier Peter Gutwein said words to the effect that his departments were just following the law. Clearly they are not.

Imagine if a magistrate or a judge had 20 out of 21 decisions they made on a particular issue overturned in just one year.

Would you say they were just following the law?

No doubt they’re not breaking the law but they’re clearly either not very good at understanding it – or they’re wilfully obstructing it.

The reality is these figures are an embarrassment. They are real, data- driven, crystal clear and irrefutable evidence the Tasmanian government has a shocking record on transparency.

There should be an immediate review into why this is happening.