Folks, this is pure, unadulterated evidence of the government knowingly hiding evidence that doesn’t reflect well on their policies. FOI is supposed to be our safety net against this sort of thing, but it’s fatally flawed: we’ve asked the suspects to be their own judges. Of course they aren’t going to release anything that they know looks bad and who is going to make them without evidence that it’s happening?

FOI requests take years to show up, if they do at all, and even then are filled with so much blackout that they are barely comprehensible. Clearly this is a failing system: we need something better. We need a third-party whose best interest lies in balancing the interests of both parties.

Here’s a simple suggestion: let the majority opposition run the group responsible for FOI. It’s clearly in their best interest to show government mishaps, but it’s also in their best interest not to expose issues of national or personal safety, because that would reflect poorly on them in the public view. I bet we’d see some fast turnaround times if the opposition had their hands on the buzzer.