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Who said George Orwell's 1984 wasn't still alive and well?

George Orwell's 1984 is still alive and well in Australia in 2011 - as this piece from The Sunday Age clearly demonstrates. One might have thought, and hoped, that in this post WikiLeaks era Governments might have learnt. No such luck it seems. 'NO COMMENT,'' said the Australian Information Commissioner. Never accuse the government of lacking a sense of humour. It was brilliant! Here was its new agency, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. An official-looking website claimed this supposed ''OAIC'' was part of the Attorney-General's Department. Committed to ''open public sector information'' it was, according to the mission statement. On and on it went about the integrity and importance of free, public, and open information in government. ''We will champion open government, provide advice and assistance to the public, promote better information management by government … we will have a comprehensive range of functions, including investigating complaints.'' Vigorous stuff, but was it too vigorous to be true? ''Government-held information is a national resource,'' said this OAIC. Just the place to go for some information, we thought. We had discovered public information had been disappearing from government databases. Something had to be done. Australian Information Commissioner, here we come. ''No comment,'' said the commissioner, via email. But hang on! Large files of public information had been quietly purged by the corporate regulator, and the central bank and Treasury. National resources, buried, three separate departments. We have a pattern. Here is the proof. ''No comment,'' said the email from the communications operative on behalf of the commissioner. Then the penny dropped.

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