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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-24 Daily Xml
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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen) (14:31): My question is to the Attorney-General. Does the Attorney-General stand by his demand, made while in opposition, that information gathered by government departments or agencies such as SA Water should always be made available to the public under freedom of information legislation and, if so, why is it that he is now silent on the matter? When he sat on the opposition benches, the Attorney-General introduced a bill into this house, on 7 November 1996, called the Freedom of Information (Public Opinion Polls) Amendment Bill. When speaking to the bill, he said:

The nub of this bill is that after opinion polling has been completed for the government, it should be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

An honourable member: Why didn't you support it?

Mrs REDMOND: Because I was not here. He said:

Members of the public are entitled to have an avenue by which to view the results of that polling after it is read by government. By what reasoning can this be denied?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Environment and Conservation.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:32): For the benefit of the house, I advise that the Freedom of Information Act legislation has been assigned to me, so I am responsible to the house for that matter. This government is proud of the reforms that it has made to the Freedom of Information Act. It was not that long ago when those opposite occupied the—

Ms Portolesi interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right. Who can remember the heady days when they were about to form a government with Peter Lewis and the one thing that they could not come at was Freedom of Information Act reform?

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: They struck it out of the deal.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: They struck it out of the deal because that was the one thing that they were never prepared to expose themselves to, and that is the scrutiny of the public. Who could forget the Liberals trying to suppress the Anderson report, the report on Dale Baker? They were forced to release it by Independents after the 1997 election. Those opposite really cannot be heard to complain or raise the question of access to information.

We have, indeed, in this state a Freedom of Information Act that actually provides for independence in decision making on the part of individual officers. Those officers consider applications. The reality is that there has never been greater scrutiny of a government in the history of this state. There has never been greater scrutiny. We have moved to close those outrageous rorts that those opposite engaged in, of wheeling truckloads—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right.

Mr Hanna interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right. In happier days when Kris Hanna was sitting over here on this side of the house—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right. When we had the member for Mitchell, a great barrister in his day, acting on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition, seeking to drag those opposite kicking and screaming into the accountability that they now squeal about and ask for from us. What an absurdity! We will continue to apply the Freedom of Information Act and we will continue to defend the independence of the officers that administer that act.

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