It's part of the scheme surrounding the creation of my office. Now, essentially we have simply been given the same power as the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which, until now, heard all appeals on FOI access. We've been given the same powers as it, the same powers as a court, essentially, to require a government agency to provide any documents to us, to answer any questions that we ask, and then I can make the binding ruling on whether the document is exempt under the FOI framework.
Now, I think that is essential. One of the key elements of a true FOI reform process is that the ultimate decision on document disclosure has to reside outside government in an independent office. Of course, some decisions that I make are appealable firstly to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and through that to the court system, so that ensures adequate safeguards and control on appropriate use of all these powers.