A joint select committee of parliament is to examine the laws governing the protection of official documents and information, as well as how and when information is disclosed.
The office of the prime minister in a statement today, says at the next sitting of parliament, a joint select committee will be named to review the access to information act, the archives act, and the official secrets act.
This follows intense public debate over a resolution aimed at keeping cabinet documents secret for an additional fifty years.
The government said today it would be withdrawing the resolution.
On Tuesday October 1, the government tabled a resolution to extend the period of exemption for cabinet documents from 20 years to 70 years.
It says this became necessary as cabinet considered a request for the minutes of Cabinet meetings in 1975 and 1976 under the Access to Information Act, which provides for the release of exempted documents after 20 years of their coming into existence.
The Cabinet says while 20 years may be sufficient time for most issues to lose currency, there were still cases in which the information released could be:
Against the public interest, a violation of the right to privacy of individuals who are directly or indirectly captured in cabinet documents, a violation of proprietary information which could have a commercial impact, a violation of bilateral or multilateral agreements and understanding within which, information was shared by foreign governments or agencies and a breach of national security and the sources and methods of the intelligence networks of the security forces.
According to the statement the release of records of cabinet deliberations will have an impact on how freely and forthrightly cabinet members bring their knowledge and judgement to bear on the affairs of the nation presented to them for decisions.
It says while the law gives the prime minster the discretion to issue certificates of exemption for cabinet documents, having regard to the period, nature and sensitivity of the particular request under consideration, cabinet recommended an extension of the exemption period, instead of the issuance of an exemption certificate.
The Cabinet considered other commonwealth jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom where provisions are made for the exemption of certain cabinet documents, but which may be released upon request after determination of applicable tests such as public interest, national security and privacy rights.
The statement adds that the issues that were considered and weighed would have been disclosed during the parliamentary debate.
However, having tabled the order resolution to give time for parliamentarians to prepare, the public debate has gone ahead of the parliamentary process.
The government says it notes the concerns raised by the public and that the government will withdraw the interim measure of the order resolution and instead have the very important issues raised in the public debate go straight to the joint select committee for their consideration.
The request for Cabinet documents currently before the authorities therefore will be reconsidered.