Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee has called on the ACT Labor-Greens government to support her Bill put forward as an exposure draft in May, that would see cabinet documents proactively released within 30 business days.
Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last week agreed to accept all 14 recommendations of an integrity review, one of which was to proactively release Cabinet documents with submissions and their attachments, agendas, and decisions papers within 30 days.
Ms Lee said that if Queensland, also a unicameral government within Australia, and New Zealand, a unicameral national parliament, could implement these changes, there was no excuse for the ACT Labor-Greens government not to follow suit.
“My Bill is designed to ensure that the government of the day is as open and transparent as possible,” Ms Lee said.
“This ACT Labor-Greens government routinely hide their failures and mismanagement from the public by refusing Freedom of Information requests on the grounds they contain cabinet material.
“We have also seen in recent times the Chief Minister and his Ministers refusing to be open and transparent with the Canberra public about the suspicious CIT contracts.
“This comes on the back of the Auditor-General’s scathing report about the Campbell Primary Modernisation Project procurement process which forced the Integrity Commissioner to come out publicly and say these issues are likely to be endemic across the ACT government.
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“A culture of secrecy has been fostered under this Chief Minister and a government that has been in power for over 20 years.
“The Canberra Liberals believe in an open and transparent government, and it is time for Labor and the Greens to walk the walk when it comes to transparency and support this Bill,” Ms Lee said.
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