Got a question you want answered by Council? This is Right to Know Week.

The Mayor has told us that "The Community knows what the community knows". The General Manager tells us that the Council's Audit and Risk Committee are not provided all of the essential financial and risk detail of projects because of "Commercial in Confidence". In fact the General Manager of Eurobodalla is often referred to as "Confidential Catherine" for her propensity to withhold information by declaring it is "Commercial in Confidence". Council are so fixated on secrecy that they even demanded all of the laptops, tablets and phones of Councillors be recalled looking for evidence of a councillor breaching Commercial in Confidence when it was publicly declared that a particular tenderer had won the Batemans Bay Pavilions project a week before Council formally announced it. Such an act by Council staff managed to only prove to the councillors that they were not trusted by staff. More recently it is understood that further threats have been made to councillors for revealing financial details. Over recent years Eurobodalla Council has done its darndest to block the release of information requested under Freedom of Information. They have invested countless hours and needless legal advice to block the public from learning the details of subjects they would prefer to remain out of public view. Huntfest, the Batemans Bay pool, the Moruya Racecourse sale are just some examples. But this week you might have your chance to encourage them to be more open, less secretive and more amenable. Information and Privacy Commission celebrates Right to Know Week NSW 2021

In Australia, 28 September marks International Access to Information Day, which recognises citizen rights around the world to access government information. This right is encapsulated under Article 19 of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. In NSW, we celebrate this over a week called Right to Know Week (RTK) NSW which aims to encourage both public sector agencies and citizens to improve applied knowledge of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act), and to raise awareness of a person’s right to access government held information in NSW. This year, Right to Know runs from 27 September – 3 October and the theme is Open by Design: integrity through greater transparency and accountability in government.