Information Access Commissioners and Ombudsman today released the findings of their first cross jurisdictional study of community attitudes to access to government information.
Commissioners from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Commonwealth of Australia and the Ombudsman from ACT sponsored the research, as part of Australia’s Open Government National Action Plan 2018–2020.
The Information Access Study 2019 measures citizens’ awareness of the right to access government information, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. The research provides a broad insight into citizens’ views and experiences of the right to access information. Key findings include:
By enhancing understanding of community attitudes and experiences, the study’s results will help inform activities to promote and support the right to access government information.The results will also enable governments to examine the performance of their respective access to information laws from a citizen perspective.