Address by His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on the Occasion of the Opening Session of a Seminar on Access to Government Information, the Faculty of Law, Australian National University, Canberra, on Friday, 27 May 1983
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X8301400101 |
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ADDRESS
BY
IllS
EXCELLENCY
THE
RIGIIT
HONOURABLE
SIR
NINIAN
STEPHEN,
GOVERNOR-GENERAL
OF
THE
COMMONWEALTH
OF
AUSTRALIA
ON
THE
OCCASION
OF
THE
OPENING
SESSION
OF
A
SEMINAR
ON
ACCESS
TO
GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION,
THE
FACULTY
OF
LAW,
AUSTRALIAN
NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY,
CANBERRA,
ON
FRIDAY,
27
MAY
1983
The
title
of
this seminar reminds us
of
the extraordinary increase
in
:.1ccess
to information
of
all kinds which has overtaken us. This enhanced access to
information
is
the chief gift bestowed on
us
by
the information revolution
of
the past
15
or 20 years. And its gift has been an abundant one; some might
describe it
as
over abundant, fearing lest the relevant be submerged in a great
tidal wave
of
unco-ordinated information. This fear echoes the thought which
lies behind TS Eliot's lines when he wrote, "Where
is
the wisdom
we
have
lost in knowledge? Where
is
the knowledge
we
have lost in information?".
Clearly enough, mere information, now proffered to
us
in such profusion.
is
only the raw material
of
knowledge. But so long as
we
recognise that infor-
mation
is
only the raw material from which knowledge derives, not confusing
information with knowledge, and so long
as
we
are skilful in our use
of
the
electronic tools which the information revolution has given us, narrowly
focussing our retrieval processes, the raw material which information consists
of can be precious stuff indeed.
The maxim that knowledge
is
power
is
now self-evident. But it has, I think,
always been true.
It
is
no surprise then that in past ages those possessing power
sought to keep information to themselves, jealously guarding its storehouses
and carefully regulating its
flow
so that it might pass only along secure chan-
nels and only to approved destinations.
That
is
what makes the title
of
this seminar an arresting one; arresting
because it presupposes that there should be access to information possessed
by
government and because it implies that such access will be by members
of
the
public generally and not only
by
those approved
of
by
government. I rather
think that such a notion would have been astonishing to the members
of
any
seminar held 30 years ago and perhaps treasonous to one held 60 years ago.
This change in our perception
of
things merits recognition for at least two
reasons. First, lest in the irritation
of
the moment caused
by
all the trivia
of
circumlocution and delay,
we
lose sight
of
the real advances that have been
made in the second half
of
this century towards greater freedom
of
information
and towards more open government. Secondly, so that recognition
of
this
change may give
us
pause for a moment to consider what
are
the real virtues
of
freedom
of
information and
of
the open government to which it conduces.
Open government has, in recent years, become very much a motherhood issue,
an absolute good to
be
saluted in passing but seldom to be analysed or dissec-
ted.
I am not sure that, having had no more than quite casual encounters with
open government, I am in any position to go very far in any such analysis.
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