Information Commissioner’s final message – Ten years on

As I will finish my ten-year term as Information Commissioner and Officer of Parliament, I feel very privileged to have held this role, and led and worked alongside a superb group of people, all of whom I thank, for their unrelenting commitment to our important work, professionalism and support.

I would also like to thank all those that have led critical work in information rights from where they are in the community, agencies, academia, non-government organisations, private sector, media and our colleagues in other jurisdictions. I have connected with many people in my role and am fortunate to have had the opportunity to exchange diverse experience and knowledge.

We have built a great workplace, increasingly embracing flexibility over the years with clear benefits for our people and for OIC. Our people are our most important asset. OIC continues to have some of the highest engagement results across the sector with staff responding overwhelmingly that OIC is a great place to work.

Over the ten years we have significantly changed our strategic approach to key aspects of our work in line with the increasing maturity of most agencies and sectors since the 2009 reforms. Our strategic focus is on high risk and/or high impact work, and building agency capability, recognising that most agencies implemented key legislative requirements, providing a foundation upon which to focus on ongoing and emerging risks particularly about culture, technology and privacy.

Australians are increasingly aware and engaged in their information rights. At a time where the community may seek access to documents to assist with critical issues such as truth telling, climate and environment, cost of living and homelessness, the push model of right to access information opens important opportunities to understand the past, participate in democratic processes and inform the future. The calls for a Mandatory Data Breach Notification Scheme for Queensland are timely and critically important for those most at risk of damage – the vulnerable groups in our community such as family and domestic violence victims not able to be easily identified by an agency in a general contact list, yet impacts can be significant.

I look forward to the Queensland Government delivering on the Coaldrake Report and 2022 OIC Strategic Review recommendations to ensure the community’s information rights are strengthened and OIC has the contemporary framework, tools and resources to perform its functions to build trust through transparency with future opportunities and challenges. I will be watching with great interest from the sidelines.

Right to Information Commissioner Stephanie Winson will be Acting Information Commissioner from Thursday 14 September 2023 in accordance with acting arrangements approved by Governor in Council until a new Information Commissioner is appointed.