Cabinet documents are a crucial tool in understanding how governments work. Kept locked away for years after decisions are taken, their eventual release offers to shed new light on how politicians tackled the issues that faced them.
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But in the ACT, it has proven an uphill battle to get this important paperwork into the public domain, showing the system is not well-prepared to support open government.
On Canberra Day each year the ACT government quietly publishes a list of newly accessible cabinet documents, which can be made available after 10 years.
It doesn't have the same pomp and ceremony as the release of federal cabinet documents, which happens on New Year's Day.
There is no embargoed media briefing for journalists, official historians appointed or former chief ministers brought in for sit-down interviews.
Instead, members of the public can write to the ACT Cabinet Office and ask nicely for the listed documents, vital to understanding the activities of a long-serving government, to be sent to them.
The Canberra Times did just this in March and April 2021, making two requests that covered 27 documents.
Time passed. Lots of time passed. On Thursday, December 16, I called up the cabinet office to find out where those requests were up to. I was told they were in the final stages of approval.
At 2.45pm on Monday, December 20, The Canberra Times asked the media team at the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate what the hold up had been.
At 4.38pm that afternoon, an ACT government spokeswoman said the focus of the cabinet office had been on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Generally access requests can be expected to be finalised within 8-12 weeks of receipt of a request however this was delayed as the COVID-19 response was supported," she said.
Since Canberra Day, 287 days before, the office had received requests for 28 documents.
Funnily enough, at 4.13pm that Monday, the documents I had requested arrived in my inbox, with a letter approving their release signed by Kathy Leigh, the ACT's Head of Service.
Would the documents have arrived before Christmas if no one asked? Who's to say.
But the crucial issue here is one of openness in government. We accept - perhaps begrudgingly - that cabinet documents are kept secret for a set period.
In the ACT, we're relatively lucky it's only a decade. However, we shouldn't accept that it needs another nine months to consider whether they can be released.
MORE A.C.T. CABINET DOCUMENTS:
- 'Hardline' bus driver bargaining strategy went nowhere as ACT government conceded on seven-day rosters
- ACT would have built new stadium for FIFA World Cup, held out for federal funding
- Heat, fire warnings in 2010 climate projections
- Planners sought to rule out West Murrumbidgee development
- 'Unquantifiable' benefits to reviving shuttered Flynn primary school site
On its "Open Access Information" website, the government says it is "committed to transparency in processes and information".
"For the ACT government, proactive public release of open access information means that we support the democratic principle of government information being a resource that should be available for the members of the ACT community," the government says.
What about cabinet documents, then?
The ACT's system is the one outlined in the Territory Records Act 2002. There are other models though. Take New Zealand, where its cabinet documents are released publicly - no requests from journalists needed - within 30 business days from the decision being taken.
That makes the 10-year delay for ACT cabinet documents seem like an age, and the 20-year delay for Commonwealth cabinet documents seem like an eternity.
In an Australian-first, the ACT government began uploading the summary of cabinet decisions to the internet in 2011. It's time to expand that proactive effort to cabinet papers.
With proactive publishing made easy by digital record keeping and the internet, the ACT's current approach makes a mockery of any commitment to open government.
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