Hide and Seek: An Analysis of the Need for Exemptions under FOI legislation.

Peter Sherriff

1994 (Tas) 10 PPL

It is the chief purpose of this paper to address the question: would democracy be better served by perfect accessibility of all government businesses or should the government be afforded the privilege of denying access to sensitive areas of its operation, as it deems necessary ?This question is viewed in terms of the FOI exemptions related to Cabinet deliberations. In the course of examining this issue, a theory emerges which concludes that the quest for unrestricted freedom of information, would be sub-optimal, in terms of its marginal benefit to the higher order pursuit of democratic excellence.