Govt secretiveness criticised

Press, 3 November 1981, Page 19

Govt secretiveness criticised

I PA Wellington The former ombudsman, Sir Guy Powles, has hit out at Government secretiveness •for not releasing submissions received by the Parliament- • ary committee studying the 1 Government’s Official Information Bill. "The Government is being . two-sided in its approach to • freedom of information legis- ; lation,” said Sir Guy, an • adviser to the Coalition for Open Government. He had written to the ■ chairman, Mr E. S. Holland : (Nat., Fendalton), pointing ■put that if the submissions were not released now it mean that non-disclo-

sure would last at least until February and that this would frustrate informed public debate for a long period. Mr Holland replied: “You seem to overlook the point that the submissions to which you seek to obtain access are submissions to the committee not primarily part of the public debate.” Sir Guy said this was unacceptable. "Surely the Government has overlooked that Parliament and its select committee is the real forum of public debate. To suppose that deliberations on the Official Information Bill are not central to the public debate is ridiculous.”