Liberals using taxpayer cash to fight diary request
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis is under pressure from his Opposition counterpart for refusing to publicly disclose the contents of his official diary, with the case even prompting a Federal Court battle at taxpayers’ expense.
The ABC reported lawyers for Mr Brandis contacted Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ office on Tuesday afternoon, informing them of their intent to take the matter to the Federal Court.
It came after a tribunal in late 2015 ruled that Mr Brandis’ office was wrong to reject a freedom of information (FOI) request for a print-out of the Attorney-General’s weekly electronic diary for dates between September 2013 and early 2014.
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Mr Brandis is taking the matter to the Federal Court to appeal the decision reached in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Mr Dreyfus said the fight against releasing the diary was “an extraordinary waste of public money”.
“His colleague Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister, has had no difficulty in releasing a month of her diary – immediately, on request,” Mr Dreyfus said on Wednesday.
“This is a basic proposition about accountability and transparency in Government.
“Australians are entitled to see what cabinet ministers are doing to fill their days.
“I’m wanting to know, on behalf of Australians, what it is that this Attorney-General does.
“It is extraordinary that Senator Brandis would go to such great lengths to avoid dealing with such a simple FOI request.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Brandis told the ABC the Attorney-General had decided the appeal be lodged.
“The AAT has made findings which have wide-ranging implications for the FOI system,” she said. “Accordingly, it is in the public interest that there be judicial clarification of how the FOI system operates.
“As the matter is now before the Court, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
Mr Dreyfus had wished to examine who Mr Brandis was meeting in the lead-up to key policy decisions in his Arts portfolio.
Mr Brandis’ chief of staff, in charge of considering the original FOI application, rejected the request because it would substantially interfere with the Attorney-General’s ministerial function.
It was argued Senator Brandis would have to sit down with his staff and go over each diary entry before approving it for released.
The ruling did not mean the diary would have to be handed over immediately.
It compelled Mr Brandis’s office to reconsider the application.
The matter was likely to be drawn out further, with an appeal of the tribunal decision to the Federal Court in coming months.
– with AAP and ABC