Media release: Strategic Review Report of Queensland’s Office of the Information Commissioner - How to let more sunshine in.
The Final Report on the Independent Strategic Review of the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC), How to let more sunshine in, was tabled in Parliament on 31 January 2023 by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Minister for Women and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence.
Information Commissioner Rachael Rangihaeata welcomes the report, its findings and recommendations.
The Review Report made positive findings about OIC’s efficiency and effectiveness across our functions, within a constrained and changing operating environment, including legislative framework, technology, unreasonable conduct and resources.
The Independent Reviewer, Mr Dominic McGann, commenced this review in July 2022 immediately following Professor Coaldrake’s Final Report of the review of culture and accountability in the Queensland public sector, titled Let the Sunshine in. The Report draws important connections between the Coaldrake Report findings and our role and the objectives of the legislation more broadly.
In terms of OIC’s strategic review, it concerns itself with the broad (notably, whether in the performance of its overall functions, the OIC contributes to ensuring openness and accountability within the Queensland Government) and the particular (notably, whether in the performance of its day to day operations, the OIC is discharging them economically, effectively and efficiently).
This strategic report concludes that more sunlight will be let in by:
In terms of the broad:
(a) continuing attention to the legislative framework taken as a whole even if from time to time more focused amendments to it are progressed;
(b) ongoing leadership across all levels of the Queensland Government to ensure that a culture of openness and accountability prevails; and
(c) adequate resourcing of Queensland government agencies to ensure that a culture of openness is actually delivered on a day to day basis, year in and year out.
In terms of the particular, the OIC:
(a) to continue to exhibit a high degree of professionalism in the performance of its functions;
(b) within the limits of its legislative remit, to continue to form an element of the leadership which ensures a culture of openness; and
(c) to be resourced to a measure that ensures that it is able to continue to exhibit its existing high degree of professionalism in the performance of its functions.
The primary issue in this review relates to making government more accountable and transparent and to that end it identified the need for additional resources to be provided to ensure that the OIC can continue to deliver the high degree of professional work in the performance of its functions and so that the Queensland government agencies properly perform their responsibilities to transparency under the RTI Act and IP Act. Critically, however, each of the RTI Act and the IP Act is currently under active review and it is more a question of the extent of change as opposed to whether change will occur.
Accordingly, if the Queensland community is to be able to fully exercise the rights related to access to information and information privacy, it will be essential that the OIC and Queensland government agencies receive additional and adequate resources to enable each to properly perform those increased functions under the RTI Act and IP Act.
In terms of the timing of the receipt of additional and adequate resources, delay remains the deadliest form of denial.
Ms Rangihaeata said her office would examine the report in depth and work with stakeholders and the Government to progress the report’s recommendations.
