GUEST BLOG: Arthur Taylor – Corrections Assault on The Privacy And Official Information Acts
On 14 March the Human Rights Review Tribunal began hearing my case against Corrections policy of automatically redacting the names, positions and work contact details of its staff from documents released under the Privacy and Official Information Act. It’s long standing law that you can only withhold such details after giving subjective consideration to whether it’s justified in a particular case. The High Court in Kelsey v Minister of Trade, 13 October 2015 upheld that in the case of the Official Information Act.
Corrections constantly took not a jot of notice, after all it’s used to getting its own way without any regard of whether what it’s doing might actually break the law (see the two smoking ban cases I took were the High Court ruled the smoking ban in prisons was unlawful). This when it’s supposed to be leading by example and teaching its 9,500+ prisoners not to break the law!
Even the Privacy Commissioner’s office has waded in on my side has formally intervened.
Corrections have taken its usual stance, called in Crown Law and not content with that also hired a privacy barrister in private practice, Victoria Casey of Wellington, to defend the indefensible. God knows what this lunacy is costing you, and me, the taxpayer? I’ve taken them on though because this practice has serious implications across the public and private sectors. How can you effectively challenge a decision, or even understand it properly, if those who made it or had input into it are anonymous? Imagine a world where faceless bureaucrats can make decisions about you and your children and you have no way of finding out whether it was the Chief Executive or hapless incompetent officers who made them? Well I’m going to be doing my level best to shut this nonsense down before it starts mushrooming in other agencies.
I expect the usual how much money I’m “costing the tax payer”, but it wasn’t me that made the decision under challenge and I don’t claim a cent for my costs. If your house was burgled it will be the burglar who will be blamed for the cost of the police and justice system and bringing the burglar to account wouldn’t it? Not you!
Arthur Taylor is a prisoner rights activist who blogs from inside prison.
Who cares?
I do.
you are probably alone, or at least outnumbered. In my view the left does itself no credit for running blogs from this author.
Actually, Dave, so do I.
Either the rules apply to all, or none. If you cared to think about it, you’d understand the irony of your comment to an incarcerated prisoner.
Dave
This issue doesn’t just affect prisoners . I think you would care if a public servant made a decision materially affecting you and they could hide their identity .
I do too.
What happened to Aotearoa land of
Accountability and Transparency or is it only nothing to hide nothing to fear selectively but plenty to hide redact or fear for some?
people in prison are being held to account
Dave, I think our elected representatives and civil servants should also be held to account.
Don’t you?
I would argue that they are largely, as every 3 years or so there is an election, and the stupid ones loose. Being totally honest, i have already posted on here that I believe the left has a future with a decent leader, i just do not think the cause is helped by allowing a convicted criminal a platform to push his own barrow on what is a left wing blog.