analysis
Secrecy sees Tasmanian public's right to information stymied
Prying information out of Tasmania's public bodies in order to keep them accountable can take months, if not years. (Pixabay)
Tasmanian public authorities have built a reputation for their reluctance to release information, seemingly in the belief they can stare down anyone who dares to ask for it.
It's a reputation for secrecy that is borne out by statistics.
The public's right to access information held by authorities in Tasmania is protected by law.
It's a crucial plank of democracy, ensuring government bodies and public institutions can be held accountable for the decisions they make.
University of Tasmania Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black. (Supplied: UTAS)
Anyone can ask for information, and the mechanism is often used by journalists and members of parliament trying to get to the bottom of something.
But authorities do not always have to provide the answers because certain exemptions in the laws can be relied on to refuse to hand over information.
In Tasmania, that happens more regularly than anywhere else in the country.
More than 21 per cent of Right To Information requests in 2019-20 were completely blocked, significantly more than the next-closest state of Queensland, where the figure was 16 per cent.
And more than 25 per cent of requests took too long to be decided, with the state also having the highest proportion of decisions referred to the state Ombudsman for review.
The significant backlog in the Ombudsman's office means decisions — on whether Tasmanians have a right to know about the activities of their public authorities — can take years.
In its arguments against releasing information, UTAS said it was being sought as a result of "self-interest" of the journalist. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)
Last week, three years after the ABC first asked for information from the University of Tasmania about its spending on Hobart buildings under Right To Information laws, it was finally compelled to hand over some figures.
The university refused an initial request, and then an internal appeal, before an external appeal saw the Ombudsman eventually intervene.
Even then, UTAS held out until the very last hour of the very last day.
Documents obtained through RTI laws showed an Ambulance Tasmania report was altered to remove negative staff responses before it was finalised. (ABC News)
A separate request lodged with the Health Department last October took nearly five months, and needed a series of deadline extensions, before that information was partially released.
A large proportion of the contents of the documents were redacted.
Ultimately, it revealed significant issues within Ambulance Tasmania's workforce, including the high prevalence of mental health conditions and concerns that staff found managers were "threatening".
There are many, many more examples of requests for information in the public interest that fall by the wayside.
Some requests are ignored by government departments, preventing the process from even starting.
As a result, there are many more stories that the public is never told, stories about the use of taxpayer cash, the management of public assets or matters of public safety.
Prying information out of Tasmania's public bodies in order to keep them accountable often requires significant patience and resources.
Whether that should continue to be the case is another question entirely.