DEMOCRACY THRIVES ON SCRUTINY
ABOUT 6.30pm today, parliament's annual carnival of scrutiny will draw to an end. Weary public servants will shuffle out of the four hearing rooms that have been in near-constant operation for up to 11 hours a day since Monday.
Ministers will breathe sighs of relief that the questions have ended, committee chairs will take a rest from quashing the perceived excesses of inquisitors, and backbenchers can file away their Dorothy Dixers.
Someone will switch off the lights and we’ll all be back in the dark. Budget Estimates Committee hearings will be over for another year.
What an insight these few days have been into the operations of government.
The week has provided an opportunity for updates and revelations about what is going on inside Ashley Detention Centre, we’ve been updated on the expressions of interest process, given insights into health and education, and much more.
It is an important week for transparency in government, accompanied, as ever, by a smokescreen of press releases and unrelated announcements.
As the public servants head back to their offices, who knows what unseen morsels lie within the folders tucked under their arms.
What could we know, what should we know that has eluded us – perhaps for another year, perhaps forever?
A government bound to the will of a well-informed citizenry is the definition of democracy. But for those few who attended in person, and the small audience of the webcasts, it is hard not to wonder what is being held back.
Wherefore springs this curious notion that governments have the right – except in the most limited circumstances – to keep information about their operation and performance secret from the public?
Our Premier made much of his government’s commitment to transparency during his last term in office after criticism of the handling of Right to Information requests.
To his credit, he has increased funding to the Ombudsman’s office, which will help reduce the backlog of appeals. But what more?
Watching opposition members being stonewalled, independent members struggling to get questions in, and ministers reading old press releases in response to softball questions from friendly MPs, it is hard not to wonder if the transparency memo, such as it was, has gone to everyone.
Good government is not some private affair, conducted behind closed doors. Good government welcomes scrutiny and responds to criticism.
Sometimes hearing the truth can be hard but telling the truth should never be so.It should not be just for the duration of Estimates week or Question Time, but a year-round commitment, woven tightly into the very fabric of government.