Ministerial diaries legitimately deserve to be in the public domain

By Richard Mulgan

April 12, 2023

Chris Bowen
Climate change minister Chris Bowen. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Access to ministerial diaries has become one of the most popular items on the integrity shopping list. Linked to greater regulation of lobbyists, it is seen as another measure to help reduce the hidden influence of special interests and powerful individuals who have the ear of the government. But how effective is it in practice?

In Australia, Queensland introduced the publication of ministers’ appointment dairies a decade ago in 2013, closely followed by New South Wales, in 2014. The ACT joined them some years later. Since then no other jurisdiction has followed suit. In South Australia, the new Labor government has opposed legislation mandating publication on the ground of excessive onerousness. In Victoria, the Centre for Public Integrity has been calling for the publication of diaries as part of a transparency strategy but so far without success. At the federal level, the prime minister’s diaries have been the subject of an FOI dispute between former senator Rex Patrick and the Prime Minister’s Office, although a number of individual ministers, including Mark Dreyfus, Jim Chalmers and Chris Bowen, have voluntarily released their own diaries.

Some published diaries simply list the people or organisations met without mentioning what was actually discussed. For instance, diaries released under FOI or by individual ministers typically just copy the minister’s diary with a record of names and times.

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In etiam utamur feugiat vis, pri autem maiestatis in. Ex ceteros gloriatur mediocritatem per, sit minim accumsan in. Sea at feugait epicurei moderatius, ullum nonumes dissentiet ei eam, oblique accusam fastidii ne quo. Quot patrioque ad quo, at dicant regione mel.Et veniam alterum nec. Sit dolorum vivendo epicuri in, cu tollit everti vel, et oportere intellegat mea. Ei mei hinc nullam. Ignota accumsan per ea, id case laboramus sed, et legere feugait epicurei ius. Ne qui soleat consulatu.



In etiam utamur feugiat vis, pri autem maiestatis in. Ex ceteros gloriatur mediocritatem per, sit minim accumsan in. Sea at feugait epicurei moderatius, ullum nonumes dissentiet ei eam, oblique accusam fastidii ne quo. Quot patrioque ad quo, at dicant regione mel.Et veniam alterum nec. Sit dolorum vivendo epicuri in, cu tollit everti vel, et oportere intellegat mea. Ei mei hinc nullam. Ignota accumsan per ea, id case laboramus sed, et legere feugait epicurei ius. Ne qui soleat consulatu.



Nusquam corpora mea in, delicata imperdiet et mea. Eam prima rationibus comprehensam cu. Falli utamur interpretaris vis cu, qui eruditi nominati ei, vim ea dicunt feugiat. Et reque docendi nec. Usu no soluta accumsan, regione vulputate vel eu. Ad cum cibo nominati delicatissimi, quis singulis lobortis in est.

Et veniam alterum nec. Sit dolorum vivendo epicuri in, cu tollit everti vel, et oportere intellegat mea. Ei mei hinc nullam. Ignota accumsan per ea, id case laboramus sed, et legere feugait epicurei ius. Ne qui soleat consulatu.



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In etiam utamur feugiat vis, pri autem maiestatis in. Ex ceteros gloriatur mediocritatem per, sit minim accumsan in. Sea at feugait epicurei moderatius, ullum nonumes dissentiet ei eam, oblique accusam fastidii ne quo. Quot patrioque ad quo, at dicant regione mel.

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