A leaked video of apparent attempts at the Education Ministry to circumvent the Official Information Act (OIA) has advocates for open and transparent government worried – but possibly not surprised.

The chief ombudsman has now launched a formal inquiry into the matter, based on the video showing an official telling an online meeting to avoid putting information shared with the education minister’s office in writing because it would be “OIA-able”, or discoverable by the public. [...] The issue now is not so much that, after 44 years, officials don’t understand the OIA, but that many have learned how to work around it. The current inquiry into alleged behaviours at the Ministry of Education may yet be a turning point. [...] A second, more recent, report put the cost down to growing numbers of information requests, non-standardised systems across government, and a lack of “capacity and capability” across its agencies.

It recommended the government review the scope and coverage of the OIA, its own freedom-of-information processes and practices, the grounds for refusing to release information, and the government roles and leadership involved.