Topic / Official Information Act
Vernon Rive . 12/01/2010 12:43:17 p.m.
Sunlight, US Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis famously said, is the best disinfectant. Less famously, he also remarked that “the logic of words should yield to the logic of realities”. The tension between disinfecting sunlight and the logic of realities is again about to come under the scrutiny of the New Zealand Law Commission, charged with a review of the Official Information Act 1982.
A comprehensive review of the OIA was undertaken by the Commission in the early 1990’s culminating in its 1997 Review of the Official Information Act 1982. In 1997, it concluded that the OIA “generally achieved its stated purpose” but identified a number of “major problems” with the Act and its operation, including challenges thrown up by large and broadly defined requests, delays in responding to requests, resistance by agencies outside of the core state sector and deficiencies in coordinating supervision, compliance and education about the Act. Some, but by no means all, of the recommendations were picked up in a 2003 Amendment to the OIA.
The forthcoming Commission review follows notable reviews of the OIA by Wellington media lawyer, blogger and academic Steven Price and former Victoria University Senior Research Nicola White (whose 2007 book Free and Frank – Making the Official Information Act 1982 work better was the output of a 2 year project analysing the operation of the Act).
Price’s research is especially interesting. In late 2002, as part of a quantitative data collection exercise, he made OIA requests to 136 national agencies subject to the OIA asking for, amongst other material, copies of the 10 most recent OIA requests and responses, 10 most recent requests/responses where information had been withheld and 5 most recent requests/responses where time limits were extended.
The results of Price’s requests were, as Law Commission President Sir Geoffrey Palmer wryly acknowledged in a 2007 speech, “mixed” – 13 of the agencies failed to respond, even after follow ups, and even after being told that the research was being overseen by an Ombudsman and former Secretary for Justice.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the inconsistent approach to responses to his own OIA requests, Price concluded that the OIA appeared to be working better than its critics might have predicted: he found that the majority of requests were apparently met in full, the vast majority on deadline. However he also concluded that “there is…much to be concerned about”, including around 1 in 8 requests breaching the 20-working-day response deadline, “bland assertions of ‘confidentiality’, ‘commercial sensitivity’ and ‘privacy’”, and widespread failure to explicitly balance public interest considerations against (rebuttable) reasons for withholding.
To kick off its 2010 review, the Commission is looking for input from people regularly involved in and familiar with the operation of the OIA and its sister statute, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, via an online survey and discussion forum. Responses to the initial round of information gathering are due by 15 February.
By Vernon Rive on 12/01/2010 12:43:17 p.m. | Comments (0) | Print