Auditor-general Colin Murphy has found that state government ministers Kim Hames, John Day and Dean Nalder acted unreasonably and inappropriately when they withheld information from pparliament.
In his ‘Opinions on Ministerial Notifications’ report, Mr Murphy said the information withheld by the transport, tourism and planning ministers should not have been so, as it was already in the public domain.
Mr Nalder chose to withhold information concerning a briefing note on future Commonwealth funding arrangements for major transport infrastructure works in the state, while Dr Hames declined to provide the total value of incentives associated with the sale of Fesa House in Perth’s CBD, as well as a breakdown by component.
Mr Day’s decision to not provide parliament with information about unsolicited approaches to buy the East Perth Power Station site was deemed reasonable and appropriate, however Mr Murphy could not say the same for his decision to give details about the site’s current value.
“The Western Australian Land Information Authority determines current valuations for land and makes these available to the public for a small fee. This information is readily available and therefore not confidential,” the report said.
Mr Murphy said in some cases there were valid reasons for ministers not to provide information to parliament.
“The key lesson for agencies from my report is that they should first confirm whether information is already publicly available before declining to provide it to parliament,” he said.
“With minor changes to policy and processes, these agencies will provide better advice to their ministers.”
