FOI and the Governance of Information in Public Tendering

In July 2009, the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) commenced operation. This new scheme purports to increase significantly the public disclosure of information. The Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) is acting as a forerunner for regimes in other Australian jurisdictions. New South Wales has enacted freedom of information reforms which will commence fully in 2010. Following election commitments, the federal government has released exposure drafts of the Information Commissioner Bill 2009 (Cth) and the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform Bill) 2009 (Cth). In Tasmania, there are moves to introduce a Right to Information Act to replace the Tasmanian Freedom of Information Act 1991 (Tas). It is therefore timely to analyse how the ground-breaking Queensland legislation operates to understand the role of freedom of information laws in Queensland and other jurisdictions. This work will analyse the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) and ascertain how this new regime will impact on parties which desire to protect commercial information that they provide to government departments or agencies.

Autorentext

Dr Paul Harpur, Bachelor of Business (HRM), Bachelor of Laws (with Hons), Masters of Laws, PhD, Attorney of Laws, is currently a Research Fellow at Griffith University with the Socio-Legal Research Centre, the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing and Griffith Institute for Social and Behavioral Research.