The Spinoff has a piece this morning by Max Rashbrooke asking "Has Labour really been ‘the most transparent and open’ government ever?" If you pay attention to transparency, then the answer won't really be surprising - at best they're a "meh", with any moves towards openness countered by a trend of increasing secrecy and control-freakery.
Part of that trend is an increasing use of "secrecy clauses" in legislation, over-riding the OIA and forbidding disclosure because dysfunctional government agencies don't trust each other to obey the law properly. I keep a list of these clauses (slightly out of date, I'm afraid) here. And right on cue, the government has introduced another one: its new Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill - intended to force foreign social media services to pay kiwi media for using NZ news - includes both a secrecy clause forbidding the BSA from disclosing information obtained the Act, and an ORCON clause allowing it to impose conditions if it decides to release something - and whack people with a $500,000 fine if they disobey. So effectively it adds criminal penalties for requesters to the OIA, criminalising prejudicing the commercial position of companies whose information is held by the government. Which while a violation of professional duty for public servants, doesn’t seem like it should be a crime, especially for anyone outside of government.
(While section 82(2)(a) allows disclosure if "the information or document is available to the public under any legislation", the Ombudsman has ruled that similar language does not actually protect OIA rights. If we want them to be protected, there needs to be an explicit statement that "nothing in this clause limits the Official Information Act 1982")
It is easy to see this as carelessness and shoddy drafting. But when it happens time after time after time, and the clauses keep getting passed and passed and passed, there can only be one conclusion: this government loves secrecy. It is actively expanding it - in the process robbing us of our right to freedom of information. And if we want it to stop, we have to stop them, by voting them out of office.
