Ministers ‘subverting democracy’

The Ombudsmen’s Annual Report has lashed the Government for their suppression of official information, with the Dominion Post labelling it as subverting democracy, or to quote the annual report in full “We feel that holders of official information need to be reminded that by denying citizens access to information they are in fact denying those same citizens their right to participate in democratic processes.”

This is incredibly harsh language for an annual report. It should give people some idea of the degree of contempt this Government has shown to the Official Information Act.

The Ombudsmen also last several agencies for slow responses and for the practice of engaging legal counsel to fight off the Ombudsmen. They say it particularly appalling tertiary institutions do this to avoid answering requests from students, as they basically force students through their fees to fund the cost of the institution refusing to supply said information to the students.