Whenever Mike Baird is criticised for a lack of transparency in his government, he is quick to point out reforms that have been introduced under his watch.
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Most prominently, Baird oversaw new rules for lobbyists and the periodic publication of ministerial diary extracts.
Neither of these changes went as far as Baird could have – and should have – taken them, but they are undoubtedly an improvement on what was in place previously.
Yet there remains a glaring transparency issue ripe for reform in NSW. It is probably the most important of the lot, and it seems to be being completely ignored.
The Government Information (Public Access) system was introduced by the Labor government in 2009 as a replacement for the Freedom of Information Act.
GIPA was designed to shift the focus of governments from seeking to keep information secret to a system with a "proactive disclosure" bias.
But, as has been noted over the past six years, the reality has proved quite different. GIPA is ridiculously time consuming, can be extortionately costly and appears to be stacked against the applicant.
Each year the Office of the NSW Information Commissioner reports on its progress. The latest report shows the system is so flawed that the public is starting to lose confidence in it.
According to the latest report by Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd, there is a "downward trend" in the number of applications being lodged under GIPA in NSW.
In 2013-14 there were 12,945 applications lodged – the lowest number ever and a 27 per cent decrease since 2010-11.
Tydd notes in her report that the NSW government's own NSW 2021 Plan has as one of its goals to "improve government transparency by increasing access to government information".
The measure used to assess the goal is government agency compliance with the section of the GIPA Act that lists information that must be mandatorily made public.
"Over the last four years government sector agency compliance, as assessed by the [Information and Privacy Commission], has risen from 60 per cent in 2010-2011 to 84 per cent in 2013-2014," the report says.
Yes, it's an increase. But even after the act has been in place for five years, almost one in five agencies are failing this basic task.
Another key aspect of the GIPA regime is to encourage government agencies to "proactively" release information to the public. They are encouraged to do this via regular "reviews" of their information.
Tydd's report finds that there is a "consistently low level of agency compliance" in conducting these reviews. Compliance within the NSW government was an embarrassing 57 per cent.
To put this in perspective, councils did better at 66 per cent and universities shamed the government with a 90 per cent compliance rate.
Additionally, within the NSW government sector only 78 per cent of GIPA applications were decided within the statutory timeframe of 20 days (which may be extended to 35 days).
This is down from 86 per cent between 2010-13.
Aside from the statistics raised in Tydd's reports, there is the question of cost.
In opposition, then Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell promised to abolish fees for GIPA applications. At present it costs $30 to lodge each application.
More than four years since the change of government, it still hasn't happened.
GIPA aside, the NSW government has also shirked it on a couple of other key transparency measures.
In 2009, as the Rees Labor government was introducing the legislation to replace FOI with GIPA, O'Farrell pledged to make two key changes if elected in 2011.
He said the coalition would reduce the length of time cabinet documents were exempt under the GIPA Act from 10 years to eight years; and there would be regular disclosure of selected contemporary cabinet documents.
The "proactive" release of contemporary cabinet documents was a recommendation of a 2009 Ombudsman's inquiry into freedom of information laws.
It happens in Queensland, where selected contemporary cabinet documents are posted on the cabinet website.
In 2012, the South Australian cabinet approved "the proactive publication of selected cabinet documents 10 years old that discuss prominent issues and themes in South Australian politics".
In NSW we're still waiting.
