Curran under fire

The Dom Post editorial:

Another extremely bad signal about openness has been sent by the Minister of Open Government, Clare Curran. She says she doesn’t see a need for an overhaul of the Official Information Act. However, she says she would dust off the 2012 Law Commission review of the Act, a report  which was ignored by the previous National-led government.  

Curran’s ignorance in this area almost defies belief. She has spent nine years in opposition and apparently doesn’t know that the Law Commission recommended a complete rewriting of the Act, and for very good reasons.

And No Right Turn is also unhappy:

Ignore that its Hipkins answering on her behalf, and focus on that OIA request. It specifies the information it is seeking and the timeframe it is being sought over. It is immediately clear to any reader what information is being sought. To refuse it as lacking “due particularity” is utterly baseless and unlawful, and I expect the Ombudsman will tell her that in due course. That would be bad from any government Minister, but Curran is the Minister of Open Government. And it is clear from her reported response to this request that “open government” is not something she believes in or practices. Instead, she is undermining it in her own office, right from day one.

Seeing this, and her previous behaviour, I have no confidence in this Minister to actually open up government or produce anything useful in her portfolio. And if this is how their Minister is going to act, the government might as well remove the portfolio entirely, because its clearly a complete waste of our time.

I think Ministers are finding it far easier to be sanctimonious in opposition than actually walk the walk in Government.