The Labor-controlled Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee has today delivered its report into the Government's proposed FOI reform bill. The majority report recommends that the bill be passed despite the fact that the evidence in the inquiry was overwhelmingly against the bill.
Dissenting reports from the Australian Greens, the Coalition, Jackie Lambie and David Pocock more accurately reflect the total lack of support for this dangerous Labor bill.
The Greens dissenting report is available here
Greens Senator and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said:
"That Labor ignored the wealth of evidence presented to this committee, and rejected even amending their bill, is a case study in how hubris and an addiction to secrecy guides their politics.
"The issues with the bill are threefold, it would make the FOI system worse, its claimed evidence base simply does not exist and it doesn't fix what's currently wrong with FOI.
"Only a Government that fetishises secrecy could have looked at the FOI system and thought the problem is that the public is getting too much information.
"Banning whistleblowers from anonymously requesting information, charging people to access information being held about them, and massively expanding what information can be excluded from requests would all make the FOI system worse.
"The Robodebt Royal Commission recommended easier public access to information to help guard against future abusive programs, and this Government is trying to go the other way.
"It's perhaps ironic that when presenting these laws Labor claimed they had evidence to support the changes, but this 'evidence' was only made available by FOI applications. Once the Greens and others FOI'd the so-called evidence ir became clear that Labor's claims had no evidence base.
"Labor claimed AI "bots" were involved in FOI requests and their evidence included an article from the US with zero evidence the issue was happening here. If agencies are competent they would already be rejecting any FOI's generated by bots because under the existing FOI Act only humans can request information.
"If you've ever made an FOI request you know you are likely to not receive it within the 30 day statutory timeframe, you may not receive documents at all and if you do they are likely to have heavy redactions.
"Nothing in this bill addresses these fundamental problems with the system.
"Some of the changes we believe are needed are clearly enforceable timeframes, the fostering of a pro-disclosure culture, proper resourcing of FOI in agencies and in the OAIC.
"It's time for Labor to abandon this attack on the public's right know, and go back to the drawing board, instead of pretending this doomed bill has a future," Senator Shoebridge said.
