This is a bad day's work for Parliament. It is a cynical and hypocritical move by the Government, a smash and grab raid on a key pillar of accountability and transparency of Government. The Government is saying the potential embarrassment to it is more important than people's right to information, that papers held by public bodies belong to the bodies and Ministers, not to the people, and that the people will have to pay to see them. This will be yet another stealth tax. The Government is saying Ministers do not have the courage to tell their Cabinet colleagues in writing what they believe. The refusal of the Government to engage in any meaningful consultation with interested parties before the Bill was drafted was cynical, wrong and hypocritical.