The Albanese government’s proposal to introduce fees for freedom of information requests and reduce what documents can be released has been widely slammed by opposition and crossbench senators as “undemocratic” and evidence of Labor’s “addiction to secrecy”.
The Labor-chaired Senate inquiry released its report on Wednesday recommending the bill be passed but the Coalition, the Greens, and senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie all submitted their own reports condemning the plans.
The amendments would introduce fees for requests, which are currently free of charge unless they require a substantial amount of work.
They would also impose a 40-hour time limit on processing each request, change the 30-day response time from calendar days to business days, and give FoI officers the power to refuse or further redact documents relating to the drafting or discussion of ideas and policies.
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The government claims the changes are necessary to combat frivolous and AI-generated requests from online trolls – though no evidence has been publicly presented of how widespread the issue is across the public service.
Opposition senators said the government’s proposed changes were “ill-informed” and were concerned they were “unwarranted and undemocratic”.
“[These changes] will undermine trust in the system, and weaken the ability to hold governments to account. Freedom of information is not a privilege given by government. It is a right owed to every Australian citizen,” the Coalition’s dissenting report said.
The Liberal senator Leah Blyth, who is the committee’s deputy chair, said that balancing the existing law’s core objective for government transparency and public scrutiny against protecting “essential private interests” and the proper and effective operation of the government “dilutes the fundamental purpose of FoI”.
The opposition, which has previously said it would not support the bill, added that the government needed to provide evidence to back up its claims of an increase in FoI requests generated through automation and chatbots.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge criticised Labor for ignoring the evidence given to the committee and rejecting amendments, describing it a “case study in how hubris and an addiction to secrecy guides their politics”.
Pocock said it was a “a bad bill with no friends that will be damaging for transparency and our democracy”.
“Freedom of information should be accessible to all Australians, not just those who can afford it,” he said.
For the bill to pass in the Senate, the government will need the support of either the opposition or the Greens.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said the government would “carefully consider” the report, adding it was “committed to working across parliament and passing ambitious reforms that will prioritise genuine FoI requests, and save taxpayers millions of dollars on anonymous, frivolous, and automated requests”.
The bill was initially listed in the final sitting week but dropped from the notice paper.
A previous FoI inquiry in December 2023 described the FoI regime as “dysfunctional and broken” owing to years of funding cuts, an “absence of consequence” and a lack of senior pro-disclosure “champions” across the public service.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, tasked with overseeing the regime, reintroduced the three-commissioner model in 2024 with the appointment of standalone FoI and privacy commissioners.
