Secrecy laws cut wanted

Press, 26 July 1978, Page 2

Secrecy laws cut wanted

PA Wellington A Labour government would pass a fieedom of information law and repeal some repressive sections of the Official Secrets Act, said the Opposition spokesman on the environment (Mr R. W. Prebble) yesterday. He told a Victoria University forum on the New Zealand environment that such a repeal would enable citizens to learn “for the first time" what the Government was up to and could participate in the decision making process. “This will be a dramatic change to the way in which we are governed,” he said. Mr Prebble. who Introduced a private memberis bill on the subject of freedom of information, said he believed repeal of some sections of the Official Secrets Act would make “our Govegiment more democratic.” Tigs most dramatic impact Woulf be in the environmental area. • “Thfe is the area where lack of knowledge has been the biggest hindrance to citizens’ groups who wish to ifrotect their environment. ■ “How can one argue cases in front of the Town and Country Planning Appeal Committee without the benefit of the knowledge that the Government department involved in fact had two other schemes which they had not announced which would have had far less effect Upon the environment?” Mr Prebble asked.

• Mr Prebble told the students it was regrettable that

the Commission for the Environment still had no legal basis and no guarantee of independence. “There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the commission is used far too often, not as the environment’s watchdog, but as some sort of whitewash agent. "The proof of this is best illustrated by the example of the Clutha,” he said. “The commission had its advice ignored but after the Government had made a decision, was then asked to audit that decision. And while the audit was going on the bulldozers started working on the Clutha. That sort of farce is going to end. “We are also going to end the farce of having the Minister for the Environment also the Minister for Lands and also Minister for Forests,” Mr Prebble said.