The South East Queensland Community Alliance Inc. (SEQCA) recently made a submission about proposed Queensland legislation that responds in part to “Let the sunshine in”, the Final Report of Professor Peter Coaldrake’s Review of Culture and Accountability in the Queensland Public Sector (the Coaldrake Report).
The reforms, set out in the Integrity and other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 are being considered in an inquiry by Queensland Parliament’s Economics and Governance Committee.
The Committee has now published various submissions to this inquiry.
Republished below is the SEQCA submission.
SEQCA submission on the Integrity and other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
The SEQCA is an umbrella organisation for various
community groups. Our focus is on planning and governance issues at all levels of government.
We welcome the reforms set out in the Integrity and other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 which
are intended to implement some of the recommendations made by:
- Let the sunshine in: Review of culture and accountability in the Queensland public sector (Coaldrake Report); and
- Strategic Review of the Integrity Commissioner’s Functions (Yearbury Report).
We also note that other recommendations from these reports have already been implemented in
the Integrity and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022, passed by Parliament in November 2022.
Sunshine and darkness
While these various reforms may let a little more sunshine in, much of state and local government in
Queensland still operates in darkness.
The Coaldrake Report discussed Queensland’s Right to Information (RTI) laws and the role of the
Information Commissioner, and noted that:
“Decisions ultimately determined by the Information Commissioner influence the information
available to citizens who themselves are a valuable check on accountability of government” 1 .
However, the Coaldrake Report also noted that the “level of apprehension, even fear, within
departments about the consequences of being ‘caught’ by an RTI request” fosters a “culture
predisposed to nondisclosure” 2.
The Coaldrake Report recommended that:
“Cabinet submissions (and their attachments), agendas, and decisions papers be proactively
released and published online within 30 business days of such decisions” 3.
The Coaldrake Report also says that: “agencies should not be quick to agree to confidentiality
clauses which are proposed by sophisticated commercial parties to protect their own interests” 4.
The need for restraint in using confidentiality and commercial in confidence clause is then explained:
An agency can exercise its discretion to disclose information even where that information
qualifies for an exemption, but the RTI process cannot overcome a lack of transparency if
expectations are not clear in the procurement process about the openness and accountability
to the community that is required when dealing with government. Government procurement
policies provide that confidentiality and commercial-in-confidence clauses should not ‘be
used as a matter of course and only included where there is strong justification for
confidentiality’. As was noted in a 2018 report of the Queensland Audit Office, ‘the public has
a right to know how much public money government is spending, on what, and with which
vendors’ 5.
The Coaldrake Reports advocates a cultural shift to more openness in government, saying:
“It is to be hoped that acceptance of this Review’s recommendations, particularly the more ready
release of Cabinet documents, and its comments on the need for greater scrutiny over what is
deemed commercial-in-confidence, will provide the impetus for a cultural shift toward much more
openness in government” 6.
Government response to the Coaldrake Report
We note that in responding to receipt of the Coaldrake Report on 28 June 2022, the Premier said:
“We will accept all of his recommendations and we will implement them lock, stock and barrel”.7
The Premier also said that once these reforms were implemented, “Queensland will have the most transparent and accountable government in Australia’.
But a year later there seems to be no progress in ensuring that cabinet decisions will be made public
within 30 business days. Nor has the Government explained what measures it is taking to ensure
that commercial in confidence clauses will only be used “where there is strong justification for
confidentiality”.
Very recently, the Government said that more than $180 billion in procurement opportunities are
estimated to be available in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games. 8
Before this spending spree gets underway, the community should be given confidence that it will be
done with exemplary transparency. The community and media should have genuine rights to obtain
information about “how much public money government is spending, on what, and with which
vendors”.
We suggest that greater transparency (and integrity) should be achieved through Parliament
amending Queensland’s RTI laws to ensure that they better meet community expectations.
Current RTI exemptions such as ‘commercial in confidence’ should be reviewed and clarified
legislatively to ensure that the community can find out about matters of public interest occurring at
both the state and local levels of government.
Local Government laws
On the subject of local government, we note that despite many worthwhile reforms legislated in
recent years there is still too much scope for local governments to act secretively by declaring
matters to be confidential, thereby restricting access to reports and discussions at Council meetings.
So, reforms to Queensland’s RTI laws should be accompanied by amendments to local government
laws which significantly curtail the ability and proclivity of some local councils to keep matters secret
from their residents and ratepayers.
Thank you for the opportunity to make this submission.
Chris Walker
President
South East Queensland Community Alliance Inc.
References
1 Review of culture and accountability in the Queensland public sector | Final Report | 28 June 2022 p. 27
2 Ibid
3 Ibid p. 3
4 Ibid p. 65
5 Ibid
6 Ibid p. 29
7 “Lock, stock and barrel” Premier embraces Coaldrake Review, Government media release 28 June, 2022
8 Queensland businesses the big winners in lead-up to Brisbane 2032, Government media release, 20 July 2023
