Is Scott Morrison’s national cabinet of secrets over? A Federal Court judge has ruled the national cabinet is not a cabinet under Australian law, and therefore not entitled to confidentiality.
The decision means that thousands of documents tabled before the national cabinet can be released under freedom of information (FOI) laws, shattering efforts by Morrison’s government to keep large parts of its management of the pandemic secret.
The government has 28 days to appeal. After that documents can be released by request. But independent Senator Rex Patrick, who launched the action against the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), says it is a decisive victory against the one of most “secretive governments” the country has ever seen.
“The culture of secrecy is led from the top and that’s evident in the way Prime Minister Morrison set up this cabinet,” he said. “The primary objective of calling it a national cabinet was to cover it with a secrecy blanket. They chose to call it a national cabinet specifically for the purpose of excluding the public’s involvement in the pandemic response.”
What does it mean?
National cabinet has been responsible for some of the most crucial decisions since the pandemic began, from the design of the hotel quarantine system, to last week’s plan to reopen the country under a vaccination target of 70%. Yet the public has relied on statements from Morrison and state and territory leaders for insight into the decision-making — and the health advice behind it.
Attempts to get access to documents and advice tabled in national cabinet have been stymied by the government which has consistently relied on “cabinet confidentiality” to dismiss requests. But Federal Court judge Richard White, sitting as a presidential member of the AAT, ruled the department was wrong to classify national cabinet as a cabinet, and ordered that documents could be released under FOI.
“The mere use of the name ‘national cabinet’ does not, of itself, have the effect of making a group of persons using the name a ‘committee of the cabinet’. Nor does the mere labelling of a committee as a ‘cabinet committee’ have that effect,” White said.
Unless it appeals, the government has less than a month to brace itself for a potential wave of FOI requests that it no longer has any grounds to ignore.
Patrick says he’s not deliberately pursuing any particular information but that he has thrown open the vault.
The decision has ramifications for the controversial and now defunct National Covid-19 Commission, which has also used cabinet confidentiality to keep its inner workings secret. It could also allow for the release of information from inside the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), which is made up of the Commonwealth and state chief medical officers. Most critically, it gives the Senate committee that has the job of examining the government’s response to the pandemic access to documents that had been deemed confidential.
The national cabinet has wielded enormous power over the lives of Australians in the past 18 months. It will be a win for transparency if it can now be subjected to the scrutiny it deserves.
Do you consider this a win for democracy? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Congratulations to Senator Patrick.
Now let’s hear accolades from other elected representatives for a significant achievement followed by their active support for reinstating proper process.
I note he achieved this result in a body that has been openly and determinedly LNP-stacked over some years already..
Never mind the Coalition will continue to stack the courts and the AAT as George Brandis fake QC did on steroids
As the saying goes “IT IS NOT OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS”. If you think Patrick has won you are deluded. Morrison will use Michaelia Cash as the cover to appeal the decision in the Full Federal Court.The idea being to stop anything getting out till after the election which I think will be on October 16. Morrison’s only hope is to go then when hopefully the ‘NSW PROBLEM’ will be resolved. He can point to a large number of people vaccinated and the economy will still be fair. If he waits till next year it is likely that things will be worse than now as some states (NSW in particular) will try to open quickly.
it’ll be fascinating to find out when he finally sets the date. I am more inclined to think 2022, not because things will be better – but i don’t think things will be good enough in October, so he’ll buy himself time and pray for a miracle.
I’m thinking May, as late as he can go, but because there are so many twists and turns in the Covid saga, who can say?
What if they discover a cure for Covid that is 100% effective, and can effectively consign it to history? People would be ebullient, Morrison might pull the trigger.
But once he’s locked in the date…he’s vulnerable to the vagaries of fortune. An enormous bushfire season worse than the 2019 one erupts, and Morrison is exposed for having done nothing significant to improve emergency responses, since the last one. He’s cactus again!
If you were writing a Netflix series covering the last few years, it’d be a thriller….although there would be a number of occasions where I would go “as if THAT could happen in real life!!”
I was actually thinking it could be better serialised on Netflix as a black comedy / satire, with a feelgood ending when the evil protagonist’s crises pile up until he finally gets his comeuppance.
Peter of Perth Hills, I’m up for that!
What if they discover a cure for Covid that is 100% effective, and can effectively consign it to history?
Not going to happen and even if it did what percentage of the world would have access to this miracle cure….
NSW will still be a basket case in October.
I reckon not so quick on the draw, Bloggs! Thing is, Patrick did win! And whatever happens next, doesn’t change that.
Thanks be for process – a decision is a decision. If it is appealed (likely enough, I agree) we can watch who argues what and why the argument/s get up or not. And even if the decision is overturned, nonetheless, it creates that valuable thing called precedent.
Patrick strikes me as foresightful and principled and someone who works ridiculously hard. Would that even half our elected representatives took on the fight that is their j-o-b. My prediction is that Patrick will press on, whatever the outcome. Let’s see who joins him.
a legal opinion by Anne Twomey for reference
https://theconversation.com/nowhere-to-hide-the-significance-of-national-cabinet-not-being-a-cabinet-165671?
Morrison will go to a higher court to give himself the time needed to lose as many of the documents as he can.
I doubt he or his office will be the sole holders of any documents. The premiers must surely hold copies of meeting minutes and agreed outcomes.
But I do agree that he will try every avenue and chase down every rabbit hole in an attempt to delay releasing any documents.
He could send them to Gladys for shredding.
Or throw them on next summer’s major bushfire, you know the one that climate change had no role in.
He has a hotline to what he claims (to believe) is the highest authority of all.
Brian Houston?
This ruling may also provide access to the “deliberations” of the Cabinet “committee” which only has Scott Morrison as a permanent member – I believe one of the reason given in the judgement was that it couldn’t be a cabinet committee with only one federal parliamentarian in it. Whatever the result this is a great win for transparancy and accountability.