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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-17 Daily Xml
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Freedom of Information

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Does the Deputy Premier have a process to ensure that freedom of information applications can be determined within a reasonable time and, if so, what is it? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: On 16 May 2023—yesterday—the Ombudsman said, and I quote:

Ultimately, after having a period of over three months to deal with the application, the Deputy Premier discovered the total combined length of document was 36 pages. I cannot agree with the Deputy Premier's assertion that dealing with an application for access that ultimately finds 36 pages worth of information is unreasonable.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:28): I am aware of that letter that arrived. That was, of course, an external review from an FOI that occurred some time ago, before we were in a position to improve processes. But to say that the result was 36 pages doesn't mean that only 36 pages had to be looked at to find. For example, for a word like 'asbestos' you have to look through a lot of documents to see which ones have it.

There was a significant amount of work that was required in order to reach that. However, that length of time was not satisfactory and it is why we have put effort into reforming the processes and making sure that we are able to respond in a more timely manner.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Could you talk us through this morning's tactics?

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. Speirs interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of Government Business is called to order.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson, order!

The Hon. D.J. Speirs: A Deputy Premier who cannot follow legislative requirements, that's gone very well from my point of view.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is warned for a final time. The leader has the call.

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