‘Suppression possible’

Press, 3 September 1981, Page 9

‘Suppression possible’

Parliamentary reporter Social scientists have told a Parliamentary select committee on the Official Information Bill that results of all research projects should be made public. The Association of Social Science Researchers, a Well-ington-based group of social scientists employed in both the private and State sectors, said that the bill “may allow suppression of certain research reports on grounds that they contained material that could be interpreted as

being confidential departmental advice to a Minister of the Crown." The groups drew a distinction between advice based on a research report, and a research report. The advice should be privileged, but the report not. The report became advice at the point the researcher could no longer put his name to the report. This usually occurred when the researcher joined a group of political advisors to discuss the report.

The submission objected to a long section defining criminal communication of information prejudicial to New Zealand's defence, or

security interests or international relations. This could be used to quash research findings used in foreign professional journals, international research forums, and conferences, that showed New Zealand up in a bad light. This ran contrary to the analysis of the Danks Committee, and should be redrafted. The association sought protection in the bill for identifiable individuals or bodies who provided information used in research surveys. There had never been legal privilege for these sources, and this made people reluctant to participate.