A reflective John Faulkner, Special Minister of State and Cabinet Secretary, mused about the principles underlying privacy while presenting the inaugural industry awards in August. Read the thoughts of the man who will be responsible for Australia’s new…
The future directions for laws and legal matters in Australia is determined in three meetings a year of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG), which also includes New Zealand.
The July 2008 meeting covered a range of important matters, incl…
The Internet’s future was the reason for a major OECD conference in Seoul in June, at which Australia’s Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, was a keynote speaker. Here, from Nigel Waters of the Australian Privacy Commission, is a rundown on the key…
Former journalist and barrister, David Solomon, is recommending sweeping changes to the Queensland Freedom Of Information (FOI) regime, turning it into Right To Information (RTO), which could open up government to the people. Premier Anna Bligh has promi…
Until now, there’s been no way to adequately rank how nations perform internally on Freedom Of Information requests, or internationally compared to other countries. West Australian CLA member Dr Johan Lidberg’s world’s first FOI Index, now in development…
Special Minister for State, Senator John Faulkner, explains in this speech – at the launch of the Australian Privacy Awards – how stakeholder consultation and a new ‘Pathfinder’ process within APEC will be used to establish robust and workable internatio…
We need to provide better laws to shield journalists and whistleblowers in Australia says ANU law student Lorraine Ingham after analysing how far Australia lags other English-speaking nations in protecting journalists and sources. Read article here (P…
FOI is under threat in most Australian jurisdictions. In WA, it’s crunch time for new FOI legislation, writes Murdoch University academic Dr John Lidberg in this article which first appeared in the West Australian. Meanwhile, in Victoria, Premier Brumby…
CLA strongly supports transparent and accountable government that, in part, is enabled by strong freedom of information legislation. CLA has welcomed the tabling of a Bill in the ACT Legislative Assembly that addresses the increasing tendency to reduce a…
CLA’s submission on the Australian Law Reform Commission’s legal privilege discussion paper supports a number of the draft proposals, and stresses how important the status of the privilege is as a fundamental human right. Given that, there would be few c…