Committee hearings yesterday revealed that ACT Government cabinet documents had not been published online since 9 August – before the lockdown.
Following questioning by opposition leader Elizabeth Lee, the government has since put cabinet documents to December on the web.
The Freedom of Information Act 2016 requires Chief Minister Andrew Barr to make publicly available information about each Cabinet or Cabinet committee decision made, the ACT Government’s ‘Open Access’ page states.
“It would be helpful if the legislative requirements are met,” Mr Barr replied to Ms Lee, in the inquiry into annual and financial reports 2020/21. “I apologise that they haven’t. I don’t know why. I’m not personally responsible for uploading the cabinet summaries, but they should be on the website, and we’ll get them up there as soon as possible.”
The missing cabinet decisions (summaries and documents) were published online yesterday afternoon.
Ms Lee said that cabinet decisions were generally expected to publish cabinet decisions within 28 days.
“There is no legislative timeframe for cabinet decisions to be made public,” a government spokesperson said.
Ms Lee said the ACT Government had not been transparent – during the six months when the ACT “faced some of the greatest challenges in [its] history”.
“All items associated with the Government’s response to the COVID emergency have already been publicly announced in far more detail than the Cabinet decision summary documents,” the government spokesperson stated.
“It is more important now than ever for governments to be transparent with their decisions, yet this Labor-Greens government has failed to fulfil its responsibilities,” Ms Lee argued.
“The Chief Minister is responsible for the transparency and accountability of his government, and he has failed Canberrans.
“If the Labor-Greens Government have not published cabinet documents in six months, it begs the question of what else the Labor-Greens Government is not being upfront with Canberrans about.”
The ACT Cabinet consists of Chief Minister Barr, Ministers Yvette Berry, Tara Cheyne, Mick Gentleman, Rachel Stephen-Smith, and Chris Steel (Labor), and Shane Rattenbury, Emma Davidson, and Rebecca Vassarotti (Greens).
Cabinet meets weekly to make critical decisions on topics such as law reform, significant policy initiatives, release of discussion papers, and intergovernmental agreements, as well as important appointments to government boards and committees.
