The State Government defended its record on the Right To Information and openness after The Examiner highlighted secrecy surrounding the extent of the Supreme Court of Tasmania's backlog of cases.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Department of Justice has refused to reveal to The Examiner the backlog of cases in the Supreme Court as of June 30, 2023.
An August 1 Right to Information request on backlog numbers by The Examiner remains unfulfilled despite a 20 business days statutory requirement.
"I apologise for the delay in responding to your request for an update. We are currently progressing your request for information. I hope to have a decision to you soon although I unable to provide an exact date,| an RTI officer wrote to the Examiner.
Meanwhile, the Labor Opposition says the Tasmanian justice system is broken on several levels due to 10 years of poor leadership from the Liberal Government.
Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said in the wake of Elise Archer's departure and before the appointment of Guy Barnett to the Attorney General role: "Our Government is committed to improving openness and transparency, which is why we have been steadily increasing access to government information."
"While I cannot comment on the [Examiner's] Supreme Court RTI request, I can advise that court backlog statistics are recorded annually in the Court's Annual Report," Mr Ferguson said.
"Regarding delays in assessing RTI requests within 20 working days, there are several circumstances under the Right to Information Act 2009 where a department can or is required to determine an RTI request in longer than 20 working days, such as where a third party needs to be consulted."
Labour justice spokeswoman Ella Haddad said the court system had been under enormous pressure for years.
"There are bottlenecks at every single level of the justice system, right from when police charge someone through to the very end of the case," Ms Haddad said.
"These bottlenecks lead to a large and growing backlog, with people sometimes waiting years before they get their day in court. Many of these people are sitting at Risdon during their wait. Ms Haddad said the government needed to dramatically increase the resources to all levels of the justice system because Tasmanians deserved timely access to justice.
READ MORE: Cricket North 2023-34 season preview
"Our communities deserve to have confidence in the system."
She said the Right to Information system had been eroded under the Liberal Government.
"Recent analysis confirms that Tasmania is the most secretive state in Australia, ranking last on many measures," she said.
"Tasmanians are more likely to have their Right to Information application refused than anywhere else in Australia.
"A review found RTI in Tasmania had an acceptably high rate of errors with almost 70 per cent of refusals over the past five years being overturned on review by the Ombudsman.
"That shows that the government was wrong to refuse to release the information in the first place.
"Even worse, anyone wanting to appeal a Right to Information refusal will wait three years to have the decision reviewed with a huge and growing backlog of reviews and a lack of government appetite to properly fund a healthy and effective Right To Information system."
But Mr Ferguson said the Right to Information Uplift Project had aimed to increase transparency.
He said the routine release of Ministerial diaries was a significant step towards increasing government transparency and accountability.
READ MORE: Police scrutinise burglaries in Launceston
"Out of all the Departmental and Ministerial applications determined in the last financial year, 90 per cent were determined within a timeframe permitted under the Act," he said.
He said there had been an increase in the volume and complexity of applications, making it challenging to respond to requests within statutory timeframes.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.examiner.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Facebook and Instagram
- Follow us on Google News: The Examiner