Federal parliament has now wrapped for 2025, but there was a last minute scuffle last week over the government’s proposed amendments to Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, described by Team Albo as necessary and by its opponents as undemocratic, or worse.
While the FOI bill has been withdrawn for the moment, it’s likely to pop up again in 2026, with Labor claiming it’s required to oppose the rise of AI bots, foreign agents and criminal gangs abusing the FOI system.
Unfortunately the proposed legislation appears designed to add further layers of secrecy to a government currently reeling from revelations about jobs for mates and Signal chats between government agencies.
If the bill proceeds, transparency would be further reduced via higher fees for information requests, more delays, additional excuses for public servants to block the release of data, exemptions for Cabinet-related documents, and limits on the ability of whistleblowers to make anonymous FOI requests.
The government’s proposed changes have managed to unite members of the crossbench, the Greens and what remains of the Coalition in revulsion, with their highly critical comments included in a series of dissenting reports.
Disgraceful attack
Senator Jacqui Lambie described the bill as a ‘disgraceful attack on open and accountable government’, with no friends outside the government.
As she correctly pointed out, information is the currency of power in a democracy, and access to that information is what FOI laws are supposed to protect.
‘This bill delivers the opposite effect,’ Lambie said, ‘reducing transparency and further restricting access to information.’
Senator David Shoebridge, speaking on behalf of the Greens, said the bill would make the FOI system more expensive, more secretive and slower, while not fixing any existing problems. As for Labor’s justifications, he said the bill’s ‘claimed evidence base simply does not exist,’ and that bot requests were already disallowed.
Shoebridge suggested that the removal of anonymous requests would make the lives of whistleblowers, journalists and vulnerable individuals more difficult, and said sweeping new powers to refuse FOI requests could not be justified.
He pointed out that broadening exemptions for Cabinet documents went directly against the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. ‘To its shame, the government has said these changes are as a result of the Robodebt Royal Commission, in an exercise in double-speak that undermines trust.’
Regression
Senator David Pocock said the proposed FOI bill was not a modernisation of the act, but a regression.
‘It represents one of the most sweeping attempts to entrench government secrecy in more than a decade,’ he said.
‘If passed, it will undermine democratic accountability, diminish public participation, and invert the fundamental principle that government information belongs to the public.’
Pocock pointed out that of the 70 submissions to the FOI inquiry, the only outright support for Labor’s proposed changes came from government departments and agencies. He recommended that the bill be discharged from the notice paper and be replaced with a comprehensive, independent review.
Undermining trust
Having put the ScoMo experience behind them, the Liberal and National Parties said via their representative Senator Leah Blyth that ‘the Coalition believes in the Australian people’s right to a fair and efficient freedom of information system’, suggesting that the government’s proposed changes ‘will undermine trust in the system, and weaken the ability to hold governments to account’.
The left-leaning Australia Institute has started a petition to oppose the FOI changes, arguing that the government’s proposed changes ‘threaten to further entrench a culture of secrecy and make citizens pay for it.’
Across the political spectrum, while they might disagree on the medicine, everyone is united in their recognition of the need to reform the existing Freedom of Information system.
As the Ghost of Albo Past said in 2019, ‘We don’t need a culture of secrecy. We need a culture of disclosure…
‘The current delays, obstacles, costs and exemptions make it easier for the government to hide information from the public. That is just not right.’
Hear hear.
So, will Albo Yet-to-Come do what his earlier incarnation promised, and improve government transparency, or make the situation even worse? Find out in 2026!
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
You can find more of his writing at Patreon and Gumroad.
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