Sunshine Act

Sunshine Act

An act to periodically publish threads in private government forums

1. Documentation

(1) Discussion within a government institution that leads to a motion or a decision by that institution into taking deliberate action or inaction beyond that institution’s inner working area is to be considered significant discussion.

(2) All significant private discussions of government institutions must be documented on the regional forums for the purpose of persistence and posterity.

(3) Significant discussions occurring via real-time communication methods may be quoted verbatim or reasonably summarized on the forums, as deemed most reasonable by that institution. If the communication via such a method cannot be saved, meeting minutes must be taken of that discussion.

2. Publishing of Discussions

(1) The significant discussions of an institution shall, in due time, be released for public archival accessible to all members of the South Pacific.

(2) The release of discussions shall occur at the following times:

  1. For a Prime Minister term, discussions from the executive branch shall be released no later than 6 months after the completion of that term:
  1. Discussions of the February to April term are due for release in October.
  2. Discussions of the May to July term are due for release in January.
  3. Discussions of the August to October term are due for release in April.
  4. Discussions of the November to January term are due for release in July.
  1. For a High Court case, they shall be released no later than 6 months after the ruling or, if appealed, the ruling on the appeal, has been announced.

(3) Discussions may be withheld from release if

  1. they are ongoing or directly related to another ongoing discussion,
  2. if the public release of information contained therein threatens the security of the region or an ally,
  3. if any personally identifiable information is contained therein, or
  4. if they contain diplomatic conversations with other regions or organizations.

(4) A discussion may be released in a redacted form by copying the discussion and censoring information not intended for public consumption. The normative copy of the discussion thread must then remain in the private forum.

(5) If reasonably possible, the institution should strive to release discussions containing classified information in redacted form, rather than withholding them. Any personally identifiable information must always be redacted upon release.

3. Audits of Discussions

(1) The High Court, as part of a case, may compel an institution to grant the Court insight into related discussions.

A2304.02 | Omnibus Reconciliation of PM Appointed Cabinet Provisions Passed


This omnibus bill proposed the following amendments to the Sunshine Act. It was passed and adopted by the Assembly on 28th April 2023.

(Debate thread | Voting thread)