Govt secrecy criticised

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 27

Govt secrecy criticised

PA Wellington The public response to the controversial Johnson Report on education should not remain confidential, the Planning Council has said in its annual report to Parliament. Submissions on the Johnson Report, which were handled initially by the Education Department and tben by Link consultants, have not been made public by the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington). He has said that he considers the submissions to be in the category of departmental reports. which are not usually made public. He also said that he did not wish to reopen a potentially divisive debate which had’ already run for several years.

But the Planning Council said that such decisions should be reviewed. The Danks Committee on freedom of information had not reported back to Parliament but in the meantime the need for the confidentiality of such information needed to be reviewed. . “The council hopes that even before the Danks Committee reports, the Government will review thoroughly the need to treat some material as confidential; for example, the forward estimates of the costs of existing policies, departmental forecasts of

economic activity, and reports of public response to documents such as ‘Growing. Sharing, Learning’ (the Johnson Report),” it said. The Planning Council’s chairman and director both made submissions to the Danks Committee earlier this year. The report said that the debate last year over the National Development Bill had highlighted the importance for planing, of public participation on the basis of adequate information.