Chief Minister Andrew Barr has apologised for a six-month break in the publication of ACT government cabinet decisions, which the opposition has said amounted to a failure of transparency.
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Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee asked Mr Barr in annual report hearings on Tuesday morning why no decisions had been published since August.
"That's a very good question. I don't put them on the website myself," Mr Barr said, before officials from his directorate took the question on notice.
Mr Barr said it would be helpful if the legislative requirements were met but he was not sure why they had not been published.
"As I say, I'm not personally responsible for uploading the cabinet summaries. But they should be on the website and we'll get them up there as soon as possible," he said.
Cabinet decisions were published to December 8 on the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate website on Tuesday afternoon, after the questions were raised in the inquiry into the directorate's annual report.
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Ms Lee said Mr Barr had failed Canberrans because he was responsible for the transparency and accountability of his government, and the delay to cabinet decisions being published begged the question of what else the government was hiding.
"Over the last six months the ACT has faced some of the greatest challenges in our history yet there has been no transparency on decisions made by the Labor-Greens cabinet," Ms Lee said in a statement after the hearing.
"It is more important now than ever for governments to be transparent with their decisions, yet this Labor-Greens government has failed to fulfill its responsibilities on cabinet transparency for over six months."
Cabinet decisions published on Tuesday afternoon show during the spring lockdown the cabinet considered quarantine issues, lockdown restrictions, COVID-19 business and support measures, while it also asked the chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, to prepare advice on mandating vaccinations for workers in high-risk settings.
The ACT government began uploading the summary of cabinet decisions to the internet in 2011, which was an Australian-first. Cabinet documents, including submissions, are kept confidential for at least 10 years.
While the list of cabinet decisions is expected to be published within 28 days of the meeting, there is no timeframe for publication set out in the legislation.
The ACT cabinet office last year took 287 days to release a series of decade-old cabinet documents to The Canberra Times, responding to the March and April requests in late December following further media enquiries.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
