30 Bills pending to be presented in Parliament - AG

Attorney General, Graham Leung confirms he has 30 Bills pending to be presented in Parliament which will now include a reviewed Information Act.

Leung reveals they also have a Bill coming up regarding considerations about the 2013 Constitution and Bills relating to the electoral laws in the country.

Fiji is ranked 111th out of the 140 countries with laws on the right to information, and based on this a lot of work has to be done to ensure the right to information guaranteed under the 2013 Constitution is fulfilled.

Looking at the Pacific, Vanuatu is the highest ranked country in the region with a global ranking of 10th.

Steps are now being taken to amend and implement the Information Act 2018 by the first quarter of next year.

The Information Act that was passed in parliament during the FijiFirst Government’s rule in 2018 was never implemented, and could not be operationalized as the Accountability and Transparency Commission was never appointed.

This has not been implemented from the promulgation of the 2013 Constitution although the Constitution states that we should have a Accountability and Transparency Commission and a Freedom of Information Act.

The media, Fiji Council of Social Services, government officials, Opposition MPs, political party representatives, the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission and other organisations took part in the 2-day Workshop on the Right to Information in Fiji that ended today.