I’m sure you’ve all got the party hats out, the screechy whistles, balloons and cocktails to celebrate 28 September 2020, Right to Information Day.
Or maybe not. Maybe you were barely aware it is happening. Too much else is happening, there are wildfires and pandemics and there’s a whole song about it, which my kids are playing on repeat. Thank you, again, Holderness family.
Yet, the right to information is critical to each and every one of these things. Except perhaps parody songs. Let’s start with wildfires. There is no doubt, surely, that the fire season, which has been relentless for the past two years, is scary. In the US, in Australia, in Siberia, there are just too many fires, for too long. In the US, five of the ten worst fires on record have happened this year. This, people, just isn’t normal.
What has this to do with the right to information? Well, as far back as 1992, the Rio Declaration enshrined the right to environmental information. If we know what the health costs of, say, burning coal are, then it is more likely that we will mobilise to stop burning coal – especially when these are revealed to be in the region of AUD2.4 billion annually in Australia alone.
If the government is – and governments around the world are – subsidising fossil fuels, we have a right to know. If governments around the world are aware that they are spending tax dollars on policies that endanger health and well-being, that is something the public has a right to know. We have the right to know how government contracts are being awarded, how they are allocating ground water, whose interests are being prioritised in these decisions.
It isn’t all about money. It is also about our health, and the health of our planet. But, you know, it could be about money. Because the refusal to take action on the ecological and climate crises we face is expensive, and the costs are going to continue to mount. And we, the people, have the right to know what those costs are today, and why the government is willing to subsidise killer industries.
Human rights are not going to be enough to safeguard our children’s or even our own futures. But if we can’t even protect the rights of humans, we are going to be facing an even harder battle to protect the rights of other forms of life. And the right to information is an integral part of any human – or other – rights regime.
So happy RTI day, and reflect on the ways in which freedom of information underpins our rights to health, and live, and myriad other freedoms as well.
