The ACT Government should be more transparent and accountable, Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee believes; but her motion to make the government release cabinet documents within 30 days, rather than after 10 years, failed yesterday.

“This Labor-Greens government is hiding behind processes to ensure that they’re not transparent to the public,” Ms Lee told journalists before the Legislative Assembly debate.

“There have been so many decisions that have been made by this Barr–Rattenbury government that have had devastating impacts on Canberrans, and to have cabinet documents kept hidden away for 10 years provides no assurance to the public that this Labor-Greens government is making decisions in the best interests of Canberrans.”

Ms Lee introduced her bill to the Legislative Assembly last year. It creates a proactive disclosure provision for government to publicly release records within 30 business days after Cabinet consideration.

It also describes exemptions, where public release of information would reasonably be expected to endanger a person’s life or physical safety, limit a person’s rights, prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation, or disclose information contrary to the public interest.

Ms Lee said her bill “strikes the right balance between ensuring we have full transparency, accountability, and ministerial responsibility for decisions”, while “providing sufficient protection [for] documents that are not in the public interest”.

The New Zealand National Parliament has released cabinet documents within 30 business days after final decision since 2018, while the Queensland Parliament has committed to doing so, following the Coaldrake Review, Ms Lee observed. Like the ACT’s, these are unicameral parliaments without a senate or an upper house.

“There is a level of review that these parliaments do not have in comparison to some of the other jurisdictions, and that is why it is more important that we have every measure in place to ensure transparency and accountability,” Ms Lee said.

ACT Government: Liberal motion is ‘concerning’

Chris Steel (ACT Labor), ACT Special Minister of State, negated Ms Lee’s bill, which he deemed “concerning”.

“It does not acknowledge established cabinet government conventions and the need to preserve the confidentiality of deliberations leading up to a final Cabinet decision, nor does it provide for a final decision to be made by Cabinet prior to release of Cabinet documents,” Mr Steel said.

“Instead, it proposes Cabinet records be released 30 business days after the record was considered by Cabinet. This would impede ongoing consideration of issues which require numerous or successive discussions by Cabinet to arrive at a final decision.”

Mr Steel said Ms Lee’s bill did not support “deliberative and considered decision making” when Cabinet considers complex or interlinked policy and investment considerations requiring discussions over several months.

Confidentiality in Cabinet discussions and related committees was crucial for ministers to “discuss proposals frankly while developing a collective position”, Mr Steel said.

“Confidentiality of Cabinet documents and deliberations are in the public interest as this facilitates thorough and genuine consultation, compromise, and innovative approaches to reach collaborative agreement. This in turn supports community confidence in the completeness of the decision-making process and the institutions of government.

“A delay in the release of Cabinet documents also supports ministers to discuss proposals frankly without the prejudice of increased public pressure and partisan criticism. This in turn enables the government to consider a range of options and make decisions that reflect the public interest.”

Mr Steel claimed that the ACT Government’s commitment to the transparency of Cabinet records was “nation-leading”.

It published summaries of Cabinet decisions and Wellbeing Impact Assessments; made full Cabinet records available after 10 years; and notified the public about released records each Canberra Day. This transparency extended to Executive Documents, available on ACT Memory. The government also operated an Open Access scheme, mandating the release of ministerial expenses and diaries, and various briefings after five years.

The government planned to improve Cabinet document release processes, including spending $334,000 to investigate the release of contemporary Cabinet material.

“No other State or Territory government in Australia contemporaneously and proactively releases Cabinet documents,” Mr Steel said. The Federal Government releases executive records after 20 years; South Australia after 10 years; and all other jurisdictions after 20 to 30 years.

Lee: ACT Government wants to conceal failures

Ms Lee said she was disappointed, but not surprised that the government would not support her bill.

“It would expose so many more of their incompetence, their failings, and their waste,” she said.

“By working so hard to hide their failures, the Barr-Rattenbury Government is everyday diminishing public confidence in the ACT Government, and it is costing Canberrans dearly. And they are doing nothing to underpin the core issues that underpin these spectacular failures.”

The “scandals and failures” of the ACT Government, Ms Lee said, include:

• the Campbell Primary School modernisation project, now the subject of an Integrity Commission inquiry, when the ACT Education Directorate allegedly conducted an unfair and partial procurement process;
• the Acton waterfront project: completion was years behind schedule, and ACT Government agencies’ management of the procurement and contract was ineffective, the Auditor-General found;
• the CIT contracts scandal, when the CEO gave nearly $9 million over five years to a complexity thinker; the Canberra Liberals moved a no confidence vote against Mr Steel for “shocking misuse of public funds”: Mr Steel had questioned four contracts, but a further contract for nearly $5 million was signed last year;
• the failure of the $76 million Human Resources Information Management System (HRIMs) project, now abandoned;
• Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury’s “mishandling” of the Sofronoff inquiry, which “made damning findings about the ACT criminal justice system”, and led to the resignation of Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold;
• the “secrecy” surrounding the Calvary Public Hospital acquisition;
• the fact that health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith was “caught bringing drug decriminalisation laws ‘by stealth’”;
• how much light rail would cost; the Canberra Liberals claim that stage 2 alone will cost more than $3 billion, money that is being taken from health, housing, education, and basic government services;
• decisions around the $400 million Big Battery that will only power one-third of households for two years;
• the ongoing expenditure of more than $320 million for the “failing” My Digital Health Record IT system (the government states the system is live and operating efficiently)

“There are countless examples of if my bill had been in place, the community would have been well aware of some of the decisions that have absolutely been slammed by the Auditor-General and by the Integrity Commission,” Ms Lee told journalists.

“This government has demonstrated, time and time again, that they will go well above what they need to, to shirk public scrutiny, to shirk transparency, accountability, and ministerial responsibility.

“We have heard about failure after failure, scandal after scandal in so many portfolio areas, and yet, not once has a single minister taken responsibility, and not once has Andrew Barr called his ministers into line when they are failing.”