I think that giving the commissioner order-making power would be a good idea. However, to use a sports analogy, it's great to give the referee more authority to clamp down on cheaters, but when the rules of the game are unfair, it is more important to change the rules of the game. By that I mean the exemptions and exclusions in the Access to Information Act. That is the principle problem. The Information Commissioner can have all the power you want to give her, but at the end of the day it won't matter if the commissioner is making rulings based on unfair rules. That, to our way of thinking, is the real problem.
I would also, as I had earlier stated, encourage the committee to think about the culture of secrecy in government and the structural issues that create secrecy in government. It's hard sometimes to do that because there is an assumption in this country that privacy is necessary for decision-making, and I think we need to challenge that assumption. I think the public is mature enough to understand the differences in government, and differences of opinion do not necessarily equate with dissent. We constantly infantilise the public in our handling of access to information.