Thursday, 26 May 2022

Government accountability

Mr RICH-PHILLIPS (South Eastern Metropolitan) (18:56): (1952) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Attorney-General, given she is at the table this evening, and it is in relation to the Attorney’s responsibilities as minister responsible for the Freedom of Information Act 1982. One of the challenges we have seen over the last seven or eight years with this government is the lack of transparency and the lack of accountability. We have seen time and time again this house making orders for the production of documents in relation to matters of public importance, matters of government decisions and significant issues in relation to public policy, and of course many of those have related to matters to do with the pandemic and decision-making around the pandemic as well as other matters of significant public administration. Mr Davis raised issues yesterday in relation to documents relating to the Woodman investigation. Time and time again we have seen the government not be transparent in its decision-making and not be transparent in reporting its decision-making.

I draw the house’s attention to section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires the Premier to publish decisions of the cabinet. To be specific, section 10 states:

The Premier shall cause to be published on a continuing basis a register containing—

(a) details of the terms of all decisions made by the Cabinet after the date of commencement of this Act;

(b) the reference number assigned to each such decision; and

(c) the date on which the decision was made.

This is a very definitive section of the Freedom of Information Act requiring a public register to be created of all cabinet decisions, the terms of those decisions and when those decisions were made. This has not occurred, so I ask the Attorney-General to ensure that section 10 of the FOI act is complied with and that the Premier publishes such a register.