International Access to Information Day and Solomon Lecture
International Access to Information Day (IAI Day) is an annual event held on 28 September. IAID is an opportunity to raise awareness of information access rights and responsibilities. This year’s IAID theme is ‘Mainstreaming Access to Information and Participation in the Public Sector’.
An integral part of IAID activities is the Solomon Lecture. This year’s keynote will be delivered by Professor AJ Brown AM, a professor of public policy and law in the School of Government & International Relations, Griffith University, where he specialises in public integrity, accountability, governance reform and public trust. Professor Brown is also Chair of Transparency International (TI) Australia, the world anti-corruption organisation, having served since 2010 on the TI Australia board of directors, and from 2017-2022 on the TI global board. In 2019-20, he led development of TI's worldwide strategy 'Holding Power to Account, 2021-2030'. In 2023, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the law and public policy, particularly through whistleblower protection.
Professor AJ Brown’s keynote titled, “Push, Pull and Public Trust: Taking Stock of Citizens' Rights to Know in A 'Free Assange' Australia.” A synopsis of Professor Brown’s keynote is below:
Public trust and participation in government continues to hinge on ready access to official information. Yet the Australian policy landscape is riddled with tensions and mixed messages - from strengthened support for the proactive release of confidential information, to fragility and underfunding in information rights enforcement; from the moral and political victory of Julian Assange's return to Australia as a convicted but free citizen, to the Commonwealth Government's prosecution of public interest whistleblowers such as David McBride and Richard Boyle. This lecture will attempt to make sense of, and some recommendations for, this conflicted policy landscape, with a focus on the lessons of effective information rights enforcement for other areas of the Queensland and national integrity systems, especially the duties and protections applying to the public officials who serve us as primary custodians of public interest information.
The Solomon Lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held on Thursday, 26 September from 10:30am to 12pm at The Edge, State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane.
The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion. Journalist and media personality, Ms Kendall Gilding, will emcee the event and moderate the panel featuring:
- Ms Elizabeth Tydd, Australian Information Commissioner
- Ms Angela Pyke, Deputy Ombudsman Queensland
- Mr Matthew Cooke, Chairperson, Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council
- Professor AJ Brown, Griffith University.
Register to attend the Solomon Lecture in-person.
For those unable to attend in-person, the event will also be livestreamed.
