'So if there is path of less resistance, where a single factual inaccuracy can allow the public service to demand retractions, apologies and article take-downs – without even having to call upon Lady Justice herself – what is to prevent the public...
portance of a group of people who can put their minds together for the sake of the nation. It is for this reason that I believed, even if we were to have a change in government, the public service will still pull us through.
I’ve learnt a lot during my time in the service, but eventually left – partly because I was annoying my colleagues by being a moody jackass with highfalutin ideals of what public communications should be about, but mainly because I felt we did not listen enough to the grouses on the ground that was fed to us through well-meaning journalists.
This essentially allows a government department that is not inclined to answer for things they do to, well, simply not answer them. I can imagine another take of that hours-long meeting I had, but instead of having communication officers debating it as an engagement issue, we would have lawyers in that same room debating it as a legal issue.
With the current focus on transparency and accountability following numerous data leaks, potential conflicts of interest and public policy failures, the correct approach should have been to ensure that any law passed be above reproach and inspire confidence that the government, this or the next, will not be able to abuse it.
The public service needs to re-assert its position of public trust. It will not do so with a law that lays claim to such trust, without the need to earn it. It can only earn trust by listening and explaining, not by branding honest intentions to engage together with lies and falsehoods.
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