SA Premier attacks Federal Government accountability

SA Prime Minister Peter Malinauskus has launched a legal attack that could erode the transparency and accountability of the Federal Government. Rex Patrick An appeal was made to the Supreme Court.

The victory of transparency was great. When MWM After breaking the news, we wrote: “Transparency wars are rarely fought on a level playing field; it’s all uphill, but the view from the top is worth it.”

I think we’ve outdone ourselves. South Australia’s highest court isn’t quite the top of the hill. Earlier this week the SA Government informed us that they were seeking special permission to appeal to the High Court of Australia, despite having only had three days to review the decision.

In other words, they did not take into account the approach of “There is an error in the court decision” and followed the following approach:

We cannot have this kind of transparency in SA – appeal, appeal, appeal!.

This is not just a legal decision. This is a highly charged political decision and it is reasonable to assume that the appeal decision was approved at the highest levels of the SA Government.

A historic victory in many ways against the secret government!

Attack on federal transparency

The Court of Appeal’s decision allows South Australians to access government briefings prepared for ministers and officials to answer questions on budget estimates, and briefings prepared for ministers to answer questions at question time.

Access to these summaries is routine in the Australian area.

Journalists and concerned citizens always request these briefings under federal Freedom of Information laws. The summaries contain comprehensive and up-to-date information and it is hard to argue that the public should not have access to the responses, which were prepared for ministers and officials to respond in a public forum in parliament.

Therein lies the problem with Malinauskas’ appeal. The only decision the SA Court of Appeal made was to bring South Australia into line with what was happening at the federal level.

This opens up the intriguing possibility of the Commonwealth Attorney standing next to me at the bar table of the Supreme Court as we both argue against the Attorney General of South Australia.

Or perhaps Prime Minister Albanese will want to join his political ally in the fight against transparency.

The relevant Federal and South Australian FOI laws are worded very similarly, and since Supreme Court decisions are binding on all Australian jurisdictions, if Malinauskas wins the privacy pitch,

All Australians, not just South Australians, will have less transparency.

The fact that Malinauskas has a clear majority in South Australia may lead him to think he can do whatever he wants. But in this case, if he manages to fulfill his obsession with secrecy,

It can reduce government accountability at the federal level and across states.

Let’s hope the Supreme Court agrees with the judges of SA’s highest court.

FOI amendment bill. Transparency counter-revolution.

Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an advocate of anti-corruption and transparency, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior“