Maurice Hayes (Independent)

Yes, I am an eccentric person and I am entitled to be so. Of course, I am drawing on experience from elsewhere, as one would know, rather than in this jurisdiction.

Being what it is, I do not think human nature is likely to change. A serious point that would arise in any business or grouping is that people must be free to have discussions. As to how long the record of such discussions should remain inaccessible under the freedom of information legislation, I think the lifetime of two Governments, or something of that order, would be a safe period. There is a real danger of developing a culture of reticence whereby people will not say what they otherwise might or should say and where people will not commit anything to paper.

I recall going into an American Government office shortly after the freedom of information law had been enacted there and I asked an official how he dealt with personal files and other such details under the new legislation. He held up a sheet of yellow sticky pads and said, "That's the way we do it and we scrub them all off when the files have to go anywhere". That attitude is also wrong, however, so we must strike a balance. The balance being struck in the Bill is not all that bad.

While we have not come to it yet, I have severe difficulties with the next part of the section because the line is being drawn too widely about what might constitute Government business. On the narrower point, however, I think the ten year period is not unreasonable.