Open Government? – political misstep leads to privacy breach
By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd
Navigating the political terrain and party politics can be a treacherous journey for any politician.
Recently, we have been captivated by a political misstep that involved the tabling of approximately 80,000 confidential and unredacted Cabinet documents of a former Government in the Victoria Parliament. In usual circumstances, these documents would have remained confidential for 30 years, unless the former Government consented to the release of the documents. However, in an attempt to seek an advantage in the political arena, the Victorian Government of the day decided to release these documents in Parliament and online.