Article: Queensland state corporations will have to share secrets

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Queensland state corporations will have to share secrets

Queensland state corporations will have to share secrets
Article from: The Courier-Mail

By Craig Johnstone

August 20, 2008 12:00am

THE operations of Energex, Queensland's ports and the passenger travel arm of Queensland Rail will be opened to more public scrutiny.
Changes to information laws to be announced by Premier Anna Bligh today and contained in a Right to Information Bill, will sweep away regulations that have kept secret the activities of the state's government-owned corporations.

They are a key part of the Government's response to David Solomon's review of freedom of information laws.

However, Ms Bligh admitted yesterday that the Government would not adopt all 141 recommendations made by Dr Solomon and changes affecting government-owned corporations would only bring Queensland into line with other states.

She insisted the commercially competitive activities of some government-owned corporations should still be kept from public view.

These included the state-owned electricity generators, the trading activities of Ergon Energy, the Queensland Investment Corporation and Queensland Rail's activities in the coal, bulk and general-freight sectors.

But companies no longer able to keep their activities secret will include the state's port authorities, regional water authority Sunwater, Ergon, Energex and energy transmission corporation Powerlink.

Others to be brought into the right-to-information net include the Queensland Events Corporation, Gold Coast Events and Gold Coast Motor Events, as well as the companies the Government set up to deliver its $9 billion water grid for southeast Queensland.

However, Ms Bligh said commercial-in-confidence or personal privacy exemptions would still apply to these companies.

"We have supported in principle the view that government-owned corporations should be opened to scrutiny," Ms Bligh said.

But the Government had to balance the right to know with its responsibility to ensure "value for taxpayers".

Ms Bligh said the current Freedom of Information Act would be rewritten and rebadged as the Right to Information Act.

"If you are a monopoly provider in a monopoly market and you are government owned, there is really no justification for you not to be subject to the full FOI regime," she said.

Queensland's current FOI laws were the most restrictive in Australia.