IPC - Right to Know Week 2021

From 27th September to 03rd October 2021, the NSW Information & Privacy Commissioner held its annual Right to Know Week event. The event saw a host of Program Champions register, NSW Agencies embracing the event and supporting this year's theme, although not all agencies chose to participate:

Open by Design:

Integrity through greater transparency and accountability in government.

In the lead up to and during the event, as the Program Champion list continued to grow and Agency logos were published on the IPC's Site, Telina Webb endeavoured to reach out to each agency and ask how they viewed the event, what messages they were giving to the public to reinforce their rights to access to government information, and what actions were agencies taking to ensure "integrity through greater transparency and accountability in government." The results of those interactions and in particular agency responses will be made available here shortly. At the time of those interactions NSW Freedom of Information was not 'live'. Each agency will be notified of the event enquiry results once published.

15th October 2021 - SUMMARY OF EVENT At the opening symposium to Right to Know Week 2021, 27th September 2021, Information Commissioner Ms Tydd stated: "citizens have the right to access government information." Chief Commissioner Mr Hall QC of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, ICAC, stated "information is key to the investigation and prevention of corruption". And yet the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, NCAT, and a Sydney Barrister are on the record (2020) having jointly indicated that using information for research and / or for the making of complaints about and / or reporting agency misconduct, is an abuse of process. Attorney General Mr Speakman stated "the public can use information to drive improvement", also quoting Section 3 - Object of the Act (GIPA Act 2009). Other comments included reference to Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948), an article proclaiming "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.” All in all any person listening in on the virtual opening event would have been encouraged and optimistic about current NSW legislation pertaining to accessing NSW government information, the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, GIPA Act. On the IPC's website, the event published forty eight Program Champions, agencies that had registered their participation and support of the event. Telina Webb contacted forty five. This is because a number of agencies fell under the same umbrella, in this instance Service NSW covered a few participants as would be expected. The purpose of the contact was to enquire of each agency, under Informal GIPA Request for agency information: * How the organisation intended to showcase its commitment to help spread the RTK message as well as encourage the agency and its colleagues to get involved and promote citizen rights to access government information? * How the organisation makes itself more transparent and accountable? * What information did the organisation make available that displayed its integrity, information that likely was not made available in previous years? * What specifically was the agency doing to champion the event? * What specific messages was the agency giving the public to reassure them of their rights to access government information? The responses to the enquiry were varied. Some agencies quickly responded and were extremely candid and open, with others giving a short response with little information at all. Most acknowledged the use of the promotional reception posters, digital banners and logos provided by the IPC, as well as making reference to promoting the event on their respective website and posting on social media. For some this comprised of listing the event at the last page of a respective agency's website where the public was very unlikely to find it. Others did not include the email banner in their communications during the whole event period. For those agencies closed due to Covid the exhibition of promotional posters in reception areas served no purpose. As such there were some very poor examples of what constituted support and participation of the event, with very few actual champions to be seen. What was clear however was that most Program Champions indicated they supported the IPC event, meaning that they did not see that they were actually a part of the event. As such they viewed Right to Know Week 2021 as a government promotion to which they showed their support. One agency in particular that shone however was Tenterfield Shire Council located in North-Eastern NSW, which went to considerable effort to show examples of how it embraced the event, how it ensured the message of accessing government information was disseminated to the local residents, and also highlighted staff training programs with support coming from Senior Management. Kiama Council was notably second, but marginally. As with Tenterfield Council, the Kiama Council representative was approachable, candid and very informative. Most agencies reacted in similar fashion as Port Stephens Council which buried the Right to Know Week propoganda at the back of the website and made one locatable post on social media as its entire promotion. On the other hand, Parramatta City Council did not respond to the enquiry until 15th October. It was also noted that the Senior Right to Information Officer at Parramatta City Council undertook covert investigations into Ms Webb in order to decide whether or not to respond to the enquiry, and if so what response would be provided. Unfortunately, in our view, this kind of conduct was indicative of an agency that is agenda-driven and very guarded when responding to legitimate requests for government information, treating the general public with suspicion and allowing secondary and irrelevant information to influence freedom of information outcomes. This agency did not, by example, accept and process a request for information on its own merit and from a position of embracing the principles of open, transparent government. This action by Parramatta City Council, which it was discovered occured twice, does not align in any way whatsoever with Section 3 - Object of the GIPA Act 2009, and most definitely does not represent the intention of Parliament as set out in the Honourable Nathan Rees' speech. But possibly worse, it showed an agency that joined the event on a completley superficial basis. It is actions such as this exhibited by Parramatta City Council that leaves the public distrusting of government and cynical of the legislation that clearly states the pubic has a legally enforcable right to access NSW government information. As at this date, that is 15th October 2021, Parramatta City Council has still not responded to the enquiry concerning Right to Know Week 2021. Regrettably NSW Education Standards Authority did exactly the same thing as Parramatta City Council, and also did not reply. One Program Champion, the University of Newcastle, removed its logo from the Right to Know Week "logo board" after being contacted by Ms Webb, but published an article about the event under its webpage "current-staff". It is unlikely the university community would have located the event information in this area of the Site, and even more unlikely any person would have assumed the organisation was a legitimate supporter on face value. The Upper Hunter Council responded to the Informal GIPA request, by demanding the full completion of a detailed request form at first instance. Ms Webb pointed out that such criteria was not a requirement under the GIPA Act 2009, with the Upper Hunter Council disclosing "Council is aware that it is not a requirement under the Act, however it is Council's procedure to require the application form to be completed to enable processing of your request." This is known by the legal term RATIFICATION (at 57). A search of the Upper Hunter Council's website failed to locate any reference to the access to information event. The Office of the NSW Information & Privacy Commissioner has not posted any feedback or statistical information pertaining to her week-long event. NSW Freedom of Information will be providing this feedback to the Commissioner in the hope that she realises her likely perception of how agencies jointly view the GIPA Act 2009 and the public's rights to access NSW government information, compared to the actual actions and attitudes of her NSW agencies, are very far apart. It is hoped the Commissioner will appreciate the value of public opinion concerning agency performance and attitudes in connection with freedom of information requests.