COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT WANTS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
28 May 2007
The Federal Government wants to charge the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) over $455,000 to fulfil a freedom of information request about the administration of the Federal Government’s controversial workplace relations changes to universities, the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements.
The two Government Departments involved, Education Science and Training and Workplace Relations, have claimed, in a response to the Union, that it would take a government official 23,270 hours at $15 - $20 per hour to locate and consider the 347 files of documents relevant to NTEU’s request.
This estimate means it would take about 2 weeks to examine each file, and over 12 years in total to complete the request.
The HEWRRs require that universities offer all staff Australian Workplace Agreements, and introduce a range of regressive workplace changes into staff collective agreements, including forcing staff onto individual workplace contracts with inferior conditions and introducing more casual and contract employment, under the threat of having their Commonwealth funding cut.
Ken McAlpine, NTEU Senior Industrial Officer, said today: “The Government’s calculation is absolutely farcical. Surely it is almost a physical impossibility to take two whole weeks to read a single file.” “Their response to our request takes the lack of transparency around the administration of the Government’s work place changes to a new level.”
“It is hard to believe that the Offices of Ministers Bishop and Hockey were not involved in preparing the Departments’ responses. Obviously the Government has a great deal to hide, and is determined to cover its tracks.”
“NTEU believes that the information held by the Government will show just how unpopular the HEWRRs have been with Vice-Chancellors and other university managers, as well as their staff.” “One also finds it hard to reconcile the Departments’ response to the object of the Freedom of Information Act to provide information ‘promptly at the lowest reasonable cost’.”
“The Union has also lodged similar FoI requests with 5 universities. It is taking legal advice before considering its next step.”
For further information, contact: Ken McAlpine, Senior Industrial Officer: 03 9254 1910