Position on government accountability

 

Following on from my general concerns about the principle of democracy, I am also concerned about government accountability.  I will strive to be an extremely strong advocate in opposing:

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• Any unnecessarily rushed legislation

 

• Any abuse of Parliamentary processes to minimise debate and discussion on controversial topics

 

• Any interference in the running of statutory authorities that are designed to be independent of the government

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• Unnecessary secrecy in government operations.​​

  • While privacy of individuals / corporations in their dealing with government have their proper place, the government should not forget that the people are the rightful owners of their information and just as the owner of a business would have full rights to all the information relevant to running their business, so the people should have the right to see just about all the information pertaining to the operation of the government.

  • It should also be noted that while there will be legitimate costs in undertaking Freedom of Information requests, any exaggeration of these costs to prevent citizens from obtaining information relating to government services or decisions will not be tolerated.