Posted 3/3/08

Monday 18 February 2008

Monday 18 February 2008

Coalition To Block Hulls’ Dodgy Freedom of 

Information Laws

The Victorian Coalition will use the Upper House to try to block the government’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill when Parliament next sits.

The government’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill purports to ‘enhance’ the operation of the FoI laws in Victoria.

"Yet this Bill before parliament is a significant step backward to having an open, accountable and transparent government and will see Freedom of Information laws become neutered," said Richard Dalla-Riva, Coalition spokesman for Freedom of Information.

"The Coalition will be seeking to amend the Bill in the Upper House when Parliament next sits in two weeks.

"The Coalition will be moving amendments to block many aspects of the Bill causing the concerns that we and many in community have," said Mr Dalla-Riva.

The Coalition will be moving to oppose:

• the removal of the Part 2 publishing requirements presently contained in the FoI Act;

• the creation of a regime for ‘Vexatious Applicants’ where the person is deemed to be vexatious until cleared by VCAT; and

• the extension of the time presently provided under the Act to make a decision from 45 days to 75 days.

"Allowing these changes to proceed in their current form will have the capacity to seriously impair the effective use of FoI as a disclosure mechanism for government decisions and for government activities," said Mr Dalla-Riva.

"For this reason the Opposition will be seeking changes to the Bill and has proposed amendments necessary to remove the harmful aspects of the government’s proposal.

"The Coalition sees this Bill as an attempt by the Brumby Government to further restrict access through FoI and as introducing additional impediments and delays in the processing of requests by agencies.

"This legislation is extreme and is contrary to the spirit of the Labor Government’s own Victorian Charter of Rights and Responsibilities, which prohibits arbitrary interference with people’s rights and abilities to gain access to information.

"If Mr Hulls gets his way, then the wind-back of the FoI laws will work to further frustrate one of the few avenues available to access information on government decisions."