The Integrity Commission report into the Health Department’s handling of Right to Information requests lays bare the experience of many in the RTI system over the past decade in stark and damning detail.
The report finds the RTI officer in the Department of Health knowingly misled the applicant over the reasons for refusing a request, for an RTI initially lodged by the Greens. The report also finds the same RTI officer conducted an improper internal review of his own decision and, unsurprisingly, it was validated and the information requested continued to be withheld.
Critically, in its Report, the Integrity Commission recommends the disbanding of the Health Department’s internal ‘Right to Information Panel’ due to the serious associated misconduct risks.
The Greens have been belling the cat on RTI panels politicising RTI decisions and subverting lawful processes, and have been met with denial from the Premier and his ministers that anything is wrong.
The Premier – who was also Health Minister at the time the RTI request lodged by the Greens was being improperly handled – can no longer bury his head in the sand and deny the significant cultural issues that persist in the RTI process.
A fish rots from the head. These internal panels were clearly set up to help the Liberal Government hide public information. There is no statutory reason they exist, and no other reason except running cover for government, holds any water.
Regrettably, the circumstances of this particular case are not unique.
The Greens’ experience is that RTI panels very much exist in other Departments. We have raised complaints with the Ombudsman that identified a similar panel in the then named DPIPWE, which was also operating in contravention of the Right to Information Act 2009.
This was several years ago, and the problem clearly persists.
The Premier must commit to abolishing all such panels wherever they exist, and to a broader review of the RTI culture which at times encourages working around the Act in order to delay or prevent the release of information to the public.
Tasmanians have right to know and they are currently too often being denied that right by the Rockliff government.
