Open government clouded, Adjunct Professor Ken Coghill
Australia risks accusations of rejecting a central feature of the liberal democratic ideals that Prime Minister Morrison eagerly embraced in June at the Perth USAsia Centre. Open government was the first of the themes he advocated, saying: Supporting open societies,...
ART presents to Senate ‘National Cabinet’ COAG Bill inquiry
ART Chair, Fiona McLeod AO SC, Professor Spencer Zifcak, Stuart Hamilton and Dr Ken Coghill appeared today before the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee into the COAG Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. Here is the video of our presentation to...
Why no national integrity commission?
Stephen Charles, Director of ART The Coalition has been promising Australia a federal Integrity Commission for nearly three years, and Christian Porter (when Attorney-General) produced an Exposure Draft for an Integrity Commission over 12 months ago. Why do we not now...
When is a Cabinet not the Cabinet?
When the Prime Minister says that it is. Professor Spencer Zifcak Senator Rex Patrick has won the right to access documents from the National Cabinet. Scott Morrison should never have tried to keep them secret. The National Cabinet has been operating more or less...
The gaping hole in ministerial accountability – Julian Gardner AM
Both major parties decline to allow ministerial staff to be questioned by parliamentary committees. Who then holds these staffers to account? The Statement of Ministerial Standards states that ministers must accept responsibility for their staffers’ actions. But do...
Rorts, Porkies and Pork Barrelling with Stephen Charles and Anne Twomey
Join us for our next event in ART's discussion series 31 August 2021 - 5 pm to 7 pm. Have we developed a tolerance for politicians treating the public purse as a resource for maintaining their own party in power? Does no one mind that individual MPs benefit from using...
Easy Lies & Influence – ABC Interview
Warning of the consequences if corruption is left unchecked! See here for a great interview on ABC Radio National with Fran Kelly today (2/8). In Easy Lies & Influence, Fiona McLeod AO SC, Senior Counsel and Chair of the Accountability Round Table, explores corruption...
Data and privacy with Victorian Information Commissioner, Sven Bluemmel
ART's discussion series - data and privacy - July 2021 See here for the recording: Australian Governments are encouraging us to provide more and more personal data to be centrally stored and used by it to provide us with its services. The data we supply to government...
Accountability and the Rule of Law – ART workshop, 21 July, 6.15 pm
This event is co-sponsored by Accountability Round Table and Deakin University. Accountability and the Rule of Law. Government Accountability and the Rule of Law are two fundamental features of liberal democracy, recently lauded by Prime Minister Morrison. As the name...
The first task is to find the right answer…. Public service and the decline of capability
The Jim Carlton Annual Integrity Lecture was delivered by Glyn Davis AC, Distinguished Professor of Political Science on 7 May 2021 at the Melbourne Law School, Melbourne University - a collaboration between the Accountability Round Table (ART) and the Centre for...