{"id":10125,"date":"2021-02-03T01:00:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T01:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=10125"},"modified":"2021-02-03T01:00:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T01:00:16","slug":"labor-moves-to-prevent-another-government-shredding-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/02\/03\/labor-moves-to-prevent-another-government-shredding-spree\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor moves to prevent another Government shredding spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW Labor will introduce laws to prevent the Premier and her Government from embarking on any more illegal document shredding sprees.
\nThe Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) has referred her report on Gladys Berejiklian\u2019s office to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) following a complaint from the Shadow Minister for Local Government, Greg Warren.
\nThe complaint stemmed from revelations the Premier\u2019s office shredded documents relating to the controversial Stronger Communities Fund. Coalition-held seats received 95 per cent of funds from the $252 million grant program.
\nThe IPC recommended legislative changes would prevent the Premier\u2019s office \u2013 and other Ministers \u2013 from engaging in the destruction of important documents relating to Government processes and approvals.
\nThe Premier admitted to pork-barrelling late last year, stating on 26 November:
\n“All Governments and all Oppositions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour. That’s part of the political process whether we like it or not.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not something the community likes…but it\u2019s an accusation I will wear.\u201d<\/em>
\nThe NSW Labor Jodi McKay said Labor will introduce a bill when Parliament returns to establish the reckless destruction of State records as an offence.
\n\u201cI find it extraordinary that we even have to do this. It should be common place that State records and important documents are kept by the Premier\u2019s office. Pork barrelling is not ethical or normal behaviour and neither is a culture of cover-up. This is about restoring integrity and trust to politics in NSW,\u201d Ms McKay said.
\nMr Warren urged the Premier to support the changes in the interest of transparency.
\n\u201cThis Stronger Communities Fund grants saga really has exposed the level of secrecy and deceit within this Government,\u201d Mr Warren said.
\nAn Upper House inquiry into the\u00a0Integrity, Efficacy and Value for Money of NSW Government Grants Programs<\/a>, which will resume in February, is examining the rorting of the Stronger Communities Fund.
\nMs McKay renewed calls for the Premier to front the Public Accountability Committee to answer questions about the shredding saga.
\n\u201cIf the Premier has nothing to hide she should agree to appear before the Inquiry. Coalition-held seats received 95 per cent of funds from the $252 million program. Gladys Berejiklian used public money for political gain, communities across NSW missed out and then her staff destroyed the evidence to cover it all up. NSW deserves answers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSW Labor will introduce laws to prevent the Premier and her Government from embarking on any more illegal document shredding sprees. The Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) has referred her report on Gladys Berejiklian\u2019s office to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) following a complaint from the Shadow Minister for Local Government, Greg Warren. The … Continue reading “Labor moves to prevent another Government shredding spree”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}