[LINK] Public data - Budget

[Roger Clarke]

At 10:53 +1000 5/5/16, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>One of the items, I did note in the budget was the funding for the Office of the Information Commissioner.
>Office of the Australian Information Commissioner Outcome 1
>Total $14,399,000 (and below this $12,610,000)
>This morning, there was a suggestion on the radio, that he would be working from home to save money.
>Also, that the gov tried to scrap but could not get this past Greens/Labor

[Warning:  Boring posts to the privacy list follow.]

_________________

Roger wrote on Wed, 4 May 2016 09:09:59 +1000

[Last night's Budget papers reveal a back-down by the Attorney-General re his endeavours to disestablish the OAIC, and to close down the Information Policy and FoI portfolios completely.

[But that's only half of the story.  

[The OAIC has three Commissioner positions, with only one filled.

[Timothy Pilgrim is still performing the senior post of Information Commissioner (upaid and on 3-monthly rolling extensions), and covering the moderate amount of work involved in the administration of FOI appeals (also unpaid, and at this stage still with inadequate - or even any? - funding for support staff) - as a condition of getting a mere 12-month extension to his substantive position as Privacy Commissioner.

[The retention of the existing organisational arrangements has been declared, and some reparation has been indicated in terms of funding.

[But it remains to be seen what bastardries the Attorney-General will commit in relation to the three appointments.]

OAIC saved from dissolution
Paris Cowan
itNews
May 3, 2016 7:32PM
Govt backs down on plans to abolish information agency.
http://www.itnews.com.au/news/oaic-saved-from-dissolution-418971

__________________


Roger wrote on Thu, 5 May 2016 10:06:49 +1000

[OAIC remains, but has suffered savage cuts, which Pilgrim has accepted.

[Note that the original budget allocated to OAIC in 2010 was already less than had been mooted when John McMillan was nominated for the Info Commissioner job early that year, and when James Popple won the FOI Commissioner's job.

[So, when the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was forced into the OAIC, some of its then budget was expropriated to run those two roles.

[Then the budget was hacked when Brandis declared he was going to disestablish the OAIC.

[Now Brandis has reduced the funding even further.  ("Pilgrim warned that ... the OAIC would not be restored to the same level of resourcing it had enjoyed before the 2014 announcement that it would be disbanded").

[The effect of the successive cuts is that:
-   the staff-count working on privacy is less than what it was in 2010
-   there have been significant increases in the scope of the Privacy
    Commissioner's work since then
-   the under-funding of the FOI work means that some of the resources
    that should be spent on privacy will be burnt on other matters
-   the delays in (mis-)handling complaints, and the backlog of 
    unresolved matters gathering dust and earning OAIC a yet worse
    reputation, have grown, and will keep growing

Revived OAIC to be "leaner"
By Paris Cowan on May 4, 2016 2:40PM
Pilgrim warns agency won't return to pre-2014.
http://www.itnews.com.au/news/revived-oaic-to-be-leaner-419051?


[Timothy Pilgrim was given only a 12-month extension on his PC'er appointment.  It expires 19 Oct 2016, i.e. less than 6 months from now.  So it would have been courageous of him to explain to Brandis that an even 'leaner' budget means dysfunctionality and non-delivery on core functions.

[From July 2015, Pilgrim's also been given successive re-appointments as Info Commissioner, and de facto FOI Commissioner as well, on 3-monthly drip-feed renewals, each announced about the time each extension expires.  

[The last media report on re-appointment was on 19 Jan 16.  That expired 19 Apr 16.  There is no mention of re-appointment as Info Commner on either the PC'er's site or the AG's site, so it appears that the appointment has lapsed:
https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2016/2016MediaReleases.aspx

[Paradoxically, the current organisation chart actually shows the Privacy Commissioner position as vacant, despite Timothy Pilgrim holding the appointment, and the Info Commner role as Acting, when it's actually expired:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/

[This appears to be an instance of both malevolence *and* incompetence.

[But perhaps someone should ask Pilgrim, and Brandis.]


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			             
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University