annual report 08-09 - Public Interest Advocacy Centre

GOVERNMENT & DEMOCRACY
32
Freedom of Information … new legislation expected for 2010.
Training partnerships
Since 2002, PIAC has partnered with the
Cancer Council NSW and Cancer Voices
NSW to train health consumer advocates to
become active and effective advocates for
improved health policies and systems. PIAC
presented four two-day training courses in
Sydney and the Hunter region, including
one customised for young adults, in
conjunction with CanTeen.
For the first time, PIAC partnered with the
Cancer Council of South Australia and
Cancer Voices South Australia in March
2009 to run consumer advocacy training
for health consumer advocates.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Significant changes and reforms to
freedom of information (FOI) legislation
occurred during the year at both the
Commonwealth and NSW level.
In November 2008, PIAC made a
submission in response to the NSW
(AAP Image)
Ombudsman’s Discussion Paper about the
operation of the Freedom of Information Act
1989 (NSW) (the NSW FOI Act).
In response to the Ombudsman’s
report, the NSW Government released
draft reforms in May 2009. The NSW
Government proposed replacing the
existing NSW FOI Act with a new legislative
framework that would make a number
of fundamental changes to the regime.
Some of the proposed changes included
introducing a general presumption that
it is in the public interest for documents
to be released, ensuring that all requests
for a person’s own information will be
dealt with under privacy legislation and
creating a new independent Information
Commissioner with oversight of the new
legislation.
PIAC made submissions to the NSW
Government in relation to its exposure
draft reform package in May 2009,
and following the introduction of the
Government Information (Public Access)
Bill 2009 and the Government Information
(Information Commissioner) Bill 2009 to
Parliament in June 2009.
Many of PIAC’s recommendations to
the Ombudsman and the Government
in relation to these reforms were
incorporated into the new legislation that
comes into effect in 2010.
PUBLIC INTEREST ADVOCACY CENTRE • ANNUAL REPORT 2008-2009