Dr WOODRUFF question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF
A review into Tasmania’s right to information system by expert professors Rick Snell and Tim McCormack, was released yesterday. They found while our legislative framework is fundamentally sound, there is a culture of secrecy in government. Information which should be released to the public is kept behind closed doors. RTI officers are pressured by senior officials to keep inconvenient truths secret. Obfuscation is the norm. This lack of transparency is toxic to democracy – little wonder Tasmanians don’t trust government. A key recommendation is to change the culture of this government from secrecy to routine active disclosures, including of Cabinet documents. A fish rots from the head, as they say, Premier, and change must start with you. Do you acknowledge there is a culture of secrecy within your government, and will you demonstrate the leadership that is needed to change it?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the member for the question. Thank you for repeating what Prof Tim McCormack and Associate Prof Rick Snell found within the report, that the legislation is fundamentally sound first and foremost. I received the report for the first time from Associate Prof Snell and Prof McCormack just yesterday. We will be going through the report very thoroughly and providing a thorough and considered response to the report.
There are a lot of learnings from the report, of which I am sure many of the recommendations we will act upon, but we will be considering very thoroughly the report. I thank them very much for their work and look forward to talking with the parliament and others about this. I thank the original proponents of the RTI review in terms of the original members of the JLN, which I know fragmented over time, but our commitment was strong to the review, as it would be, of course, with other commitments that we’ve made across the parliament.
I look forward to responding to the report. No doubt you will have a view. We will go through and scrutinise it very thoroughly and provide a considered response.
Dr WOODRUFF – A supplementary question, Speaker?
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary question.
Dr WOODRUFF – Thank you for talking about the thorough and considered response. I note you are the third Liberal premier to promise to make changes to RTI. Could we find out when you might be preparing your response and would be providing that for parliament?
The SPEAKER – That really is a new question on top of your previous question –
Dr Woodruff – It was in relation to his thorough and considered response and I wondered when it was going to be provided to Tasmania. That’s all.
The SPEAKER – That was an additional question to your previous question.
