The Mercury: Tasmania: Tuesday,
September 27, 2016.
TASMANIA’S
foremost Right to Information expert says parts of a Hydro Tasmania document
released to Labor appear to have been redacted to avoid embarrassment.
Hydro remains
in damage control over a leaked internal report, published by the Mercury,
which says the business will struggle to maintain the state’s hydro-electricity
network over the next decade under its existing maintenance budget.
Hydro has
released a redacted version of the 10-year asset management plan 2016 in
response to a Right to Information request by Labor.
But sections
and even individual words in the RTI version of the 50-page plan have been
whited out.
University of
Tasmania administrative law and RTI expert Rick Snell said it was unusual to
see single words and parts of sentences removed from an RTI response.
Associate
Professor Snell said while some redacted sections could be justified because
they contained sensitive commercial information, other redactions were harder
to fathom.
“A lot of
this appears to be more with an eye to (avoiding) public sensation and
embarrassment, which is specifically ruled out of the RTI Act,” he said.
Hydro
Tasmania’s two-page letter to Opposition leader Bryan Green on the release said
the redacted information was either classed as internal deliberative
information, personal information or information relating to business affairs.
Associate
Professor Snell said each redacted piece of information should be specifically
explained.
“It probably
falls short of the requirements of the Act and also of the Ombudsman’s RTI
manual,” he said.
Mr Green said
Hydro Tasmania had gone to “ludicrous” lengths to conceal information that had
already been leaked.
Hydro
Tasmania chief executive Stephen Davy said confidential information was
redacted for commercial and operational reasons.
Mr Davy has
previously downplayed the risks identified in the report, saying that such
documents always quantifed risks and the business could meet its many
challenges.
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