[LINK] Fwd: [PRIVACY] [apfma] Hosting what the Govt won’t : Delimiter establishes AGD FoI mirror

[Jan Whitaker]

This one looks relevant to Linkers as well.
Jan


>Hosting what the Govt won’t: Delimiter establishes AGD FoI mirror
>Author: Renai LeMay
>Published: November 19, 2013
>Source:
>http://delimiter.com.au/2013/11/19/hosting-govt-wont-delimiter-establishes-agd-foi-mirror/
>
>
>Technology media outlet Delimiter today revealed it would establish a
>free file-serving mirror of PDF documents published under Freedom of
>Information laws by the Attorney-General’s Department and relevant to
>the technology sector, in the wake of confirmation by the department
>that it has removed such documents from its website.
>
>Under the Freedom of Information Act, all government departments and
>agencies covered by the legislation must provide a way for the public to
>access documents which any party has requested under the legislation.
>This means that if individuals make FoI requests of government
>organisations, that that information will eventually reach the public
>domain and be accessible to all.
>
>Almost all Federal Government organisations — including some government
>business enterprises such as NBN Co — interpret the act to mean that
>they must publish documents released under the FoI act in a disclosure
>log on their website. The Attorney-General’s Department, which contains
>FoI oversight as part of its portfolio, has historically done this.
>
>However, the department recently removed PDF documents relating to FoI
>requests from its website, forcing those seeking access to the documents
>to email or otherwise communicate with it directly. This has
>substantially reduced access to a number of sensitive documents.
>
>[A linked article explains that the AGD removed the PDF documents
>because they did not meet accessibility guidelines.]
>
>The issue of FoI with respect to the Attorney-General’s Department is
>particularly pertinent for technologists because the issues the
>department is working on — with respect to copyright reform, Internet
>piracy, data retention and telecommunications surveillance — are key
>issues of interest for Australia’s technology sector. The department
>often publishes important FoI documents relating to these issues.
>
>Because of these reasons, Delimiter can today confirm it will establish
>a mirror of PDF documents published by the Department under Freedom of
>Information laws. The mirror will be established on a page on
>Delimiter’s website over the next several weeks and will publish PDF
>documents released by the Department as it releases them.
>
>The mirror will not seek to replicate all of the documents which the
>Department releases under FoI laws, but will publish those documents
>which are relevant in some way to the Australian technology industry and
>technical readers.
>
>Initially, the mirror will seek to publish all documents of this nature
>which the Department has released in 2013. This year the Department has
>published important FoI documents relating to issues such as the
>classification of video games, surveillance programs such as PRISM, data
>retention and surveillance, hacking and Internet security and copyright
>reform associated with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
>
>As a first step, today Delimiter releases three key documents publicly
>which the Department has declined to host on its own website. While we
>have paper copies of these documents, we’d like to thank Twitter user
>@FOIcentric for supplying them to us in electronic form, to save us
>scanning them in. @FOIcentric also acquired the documents from the
>department under FoI laws.
>
>The documents relate to briefs to the Attorney-General and the Secretary
>of the Attorney-General’s Department about data retention and industry
>consultations on Data retention, as well as the PRISM program operated
>by the US National Security Agency. They relate to FoI requests
>FOI13/062 and FOI13/132. The documents are:
>
>- - Talking points on PRISM surveillance allegations (2.4MB)
>http://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/177256776-FOI-release-PRISM-XKEYSCORE-FOI-FOI13-132.pdf
>
>- - Equipping Australia Against Emerging and Evolving Threats Discussion
>Paper (1.4MB)
>http://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/184665550-AGD-Data-Retention-Equipping-Australia.pdf
>
>- - Industry consultation on a mandatory data retention regime (35.2MB)
>http://delimiter.com.au/foi/184765124-Australian-Attorney-General-s-Department-Brief-on-Industry-Consultation-on-a-Mandatory-Data-Retention-Regime.pdf
>
>These documents have previously been examined by Crikey in several
>articles published in early October. The first article states:
>
>[http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/10/03/revealed-attorney-generals-drive-for-data-retention-law/?wpmp_switcher=mobile]
>
> > “The Attorney-General’s Department began pushing for a two-year
> > data retention regime virtually the moment the Rudd government was
> >  elected, newly obtained documents reveal, and the Department’s
> > secretary appears to have misled a Senate committee about his own
> > role in the development of the plan.”
>
>The second article states:
>
>[http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/10/04/a-g-foi-investigation-how-data-retention-was-derailed/]
>
> > “The haste of the Attorney-General’s department in seeking to push
> >  through a data retention regime prior to the 2010 election ...
>...snip...
> >... inquiry
> >  forced a change of tack from the department toward public
> > consultation?—?which the Labor government baulked at.”
>
>Delimiter believes the publication of these documents is important due
>to the aims of the FoI legislation. The site of the Australian
>Information Commissioner states with regard to why FoI legislation is
>important:
>
>“The Australian Parliament first considered introducing freedom of
>information (FOI) legislation in the 1970s. In 1979, a Senate committee
>report outlined three reasons why FOI is important: FOI allows
>individuals to see what information government holds about them, and to
>seek correction of that information if they consider it wrong or
>misleading. FOI enhances the transparency of policy making,
>administrative decision making and government service delivery. A
>community that is better informed can participate more effectively in
>the nation’s democratic processes.”
>
>“These reasons are still valid today. More recently, a fourth reason for
>FOI has emerged — there is greater recognition that information gathered
>by government at public expense is a national resource and should be
>available more widely to the public. This idea was explicitly recognised
>through the reforms to the FOI Act in 2010 and the creation of the
>information policy function of the Office of the Australian Information
>Commissioner (OAIC).”
>
>Additionally, as a publication published by a private corporation,
>Delimiter is not subject to the accessibility guidelines which the
>Attorney-General’s Department has cited as a reason for not publishing
>these documents itself.


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, 
you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space 
between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer

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