Do you agree with the underlying principles and the overarching frameworks of these Acts?
by Talklaw Project Coordinator 10:33am, 9 December 2009
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Reasons commonly given for not releasing information include, in broad terms, maintenance of the law, enabling good government, protecting commercial interests, privacy, and processing difficulties.
Almost all organisations that are responsible to central Government in some way are within scope, and most local organisations that are accountable to the public for their function.
This legislation is over 25 years old and whether it is still easy to understand and to follow is an important question.
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thomasbeagle Comment 1
8:07pm, 9 December 2009
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As a firm believer in open and democratic government I am a strong supporter of the Official Information Act. I appreciate that it starts with the principle that all information should be available unless there is a reason for it not to be.
It's now time to take the next step, of not just saying that information should be given when asked for, but that information should just be available. By this I mean that government departments and other organisations subject to the OIA should be obliged to make all of their content available on the internet for people to search and read (obviously excepting documents that would otherwise be withheld under the OIA). Most government departments are already implementing document management systems to comply with the Public Records Act so the basic infrastructure is already in place.
The OIA changed the presumption that government should be done in secret, let's take the next step and insist that government is done in public.
Kimeros Comment 1.1
1:00pm, 16 December 2009
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thomasbeagle - I agree with your call to take the next step.
For reference, it seems that there is a draft Government Guideline from SSC which advocates open access to information and data.
I would recommend a review of the Official Information Act would look at this document http://blog.e.govt.nz/index.php/nzgoal/introduction/
I believe that the government needs to be more proactive about providing data and information to people. Information about costs, staffing, power usage as well as policy and decision documents should be available online.
CLR Comment 2
4:25pm, 2 February 2010
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I think in a truely democratic society the goverment is there to do the people's bidding, uphold our laws and regulations, provide needed services to the people and look after the commons etc...
The goverment should not be able to withhold any information from the people unless it will compromise individual privacy. All information generated or held by the goverment should be available to all those who are governed by it.
Secrets lead to impunity, when decisions are made in secret or based on secret information there is no oversight. Elites and ruling classes think the masses are not capable of thinking for themseles so take it upon themselves to make decisions for those lower in the pecking order.
Those making the decisions should not be able to hide behind national security, commercial sensitivity etc... those are all excuses to hide the real reasons for thier decisions. In a truely open society anyone should be able to question the basis of decisions made by those whe are governing them. If they have nothing to hide then they have nothing to worry about.
The goverment can listen to our phone calls, internet traffic, put bugs in your house etc.. they should be able to justify those decisions and that information should be available to anyone who has an interest it, not just those with vested interests, judges, beurocrats goverment workers etc. these are all appointed and not elected by the people.
The best oversight is if everyone has oversight.
