Something we didn’t know already!! Save Williamstown’s FOI requests have been delayed too.. So much for OPEN government.  How does a public servant mix up their private business and public business in a diary paid for by Tax Payers?

The Age by Jason Dowling
July 12, 2010 - 3:00AM

“FORGET the price of the grand prix, cabinet documents or Brownlow votes - rocketing up the list of protected information in Victoria is a few months of entries in the diary of Planning Minister Justin Madden's chief of staff.......

........But Victorians will be denied the right to know if lobbyists or developers are meeting with the planning minister's chief adviser Justin Jarvis - or when, where and how often.

The Age has been refused an FOI request for a copy of Mr Jarvis' diary for the period January 1 to April 1, 2010.

Why shouldn't the public know who the planning minister's chief adviser is meeting with, in a time of increased ministerial planning intervention?

Because, according to Andrew Weston, FOI manager with the Department of Planning and Community Development, it is not practicable to produce an edited copy of the diary that distinguishes between personal and work-related entries and produces ''an accurate record''.

Mr Weston ruled ''the abbreviated nature of the entries'' also had the potential to be misleading. Across Bass Strait in the island state, freedom-of-information officers have no such problems.....”

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/madden-diary-a-closed-book-20100711-105m9.html