Secrecy legal guidelines making use of to public servants will likely be simplified and improved, and there will likely be higher protections for journalists.
Legal professional-Normal Mark Dreyfus is proposing to reverse years of growth of Commonwealth secrecy legal guidelines with a brand new common secrecy regulation for public servants and people working with the Commonwealth, and the repeal or curtailment of scores of secrecy legal guidelines which have proliferated underneath transparency-averse governments.
The dedication comes after an in depth assessment of all Commonwealth secrecy legal guidelines by the Legal professional-Normal’s Division (AGD), commissioned by Dreyfus, which made a set of suggestions to scale back and unify the panoply of secrecy restrictions working throughout departments and companies.
What’s fascinating concerning the assessment is that the AGD, for years the bane of transparency, media freedom (and, actually, fundamental liberties), has underneath Dreyfus shifted gear to push for the rolling again of some secrecy provisions and the institution of core rules to information future laws — within the tooth of opposition from different departments.
Learn extra about how the attorney-general’s workplace is beginning to halt the tide of secrecy.
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