Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to introduce bill to slap fees and other limitations on Freedom of Information requests. What’s the scam?
The scam is the Government’s unrelenting attack on transparency, claiming that putting up barriers to FOI requests will help bureaucrats give “frank and fearless” advice to ministers. If it’s frank, why fear it?
The legislation is due to be introduced to Parliament on September 3, and MWM understands it will include a charge for lodging FOI requests and ban anonymous requests, including those made by AI bots.
Repelling the bots is a good thing, but, as our transparency warrior, Rex Patrick, stated, “Happy to pay a fee provided I get a penalty payment for each access refusal overturned on appeal.”
Ironically, Rex is in the Administrative Review Tribunal this week, fighting to see what DFAT censored in a history book commissioned by the Australian War Memorial.
This case has taken close to five years, and Rex estimates that the cost to the Government is well in excess of $100,000 so far, not including the employment this week of silk Trent Glover SC, charging thousands per day.
That pales into significance, though, with the $540,000 spent on defending the so-called “shredder case”, an attempt by the party duopoly to protect politically sensitive material on change of government.
Shredders and dustpans. Mark Dreyfus’ desperate sweep on taxpayers
“No wonder the government needs to charge fees,” Rex Patrick says, “But unless there is a dramatic change in the timeliness and veracity of FOI responses, nothing will change.”
It’s the culture of secrecy that needs to change. And that has to start at the top.
Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned writer and commentator. He is passionate about free speech, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim has lived in Australia for 30 years. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.