Ash Ambihaipahar (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 to reform the Freedom of Information Act, which is well overdue, necessary and grounded in one simple democratic principle: the public has a right to know. Freedom of information laws sit at the heart of a functioning democracy. They create transparency, they forward accountability, and they ensure that government at every level remembers who we serve—that is, the people.

I had the opportunity to hear the member for New England's speech on the amendment bill, and I want to quote something he said tonight. He said, 'When a government becomes too powerful, it covers its tracks.' Now, I'm not going to listen to advice from a member who was part of a former government that provided multiple secret ministerial portfolios to a former prime minister. For me, transparency is not an abstract principle. It is a lived value that all Australians expect that governments of the day will uphold.

Before entering this house, I spent a decade working in employment and industrial relations law. In that role, I stood next to working people like nurses and electricians—people who relied on accurate information to stand up for their rights. I've seen firsthand that, when transparency fails, working people lose power, and, when systems become confusing, slow or difficult, it is everyday Australians who are left behind. FOI is no different.

Access to government information empowers our communities. It builds trust. It gives people confidence that public institutions serve them, not themselves. Yet we must also be honest. The FOI framework as it stands today is not working as intended—not for government, not for public servants and certainly not for the public.

When the FOI Act came into force over 40 years ago, the Public Service did not operate in the world we live in today. There was no email inbox overflow every morning, there were no digital archives holding decades of communications, and there were no thousands of pages generated every week across government offices. Back then, the volume of public sector records and the pace at which information moves now would have been unimaginable. Today, by contrast, the government receives over 34,000 FOI requests each year, and departments and agencies spend more than one million hours processing them annually—and it comes at a cost.

Last financial year alone, FOI processing cost government more than $86 million, a 23 per cent increase on the year before and more than double what it cost in 2010-11. That is taxpayers' money. That is Public Service time and capability. That is not sustainable without reform. If we do not modernise this system, we'll continue to choke it, we'll continue to see delays and we'll continue to see resources diverted away from public delivery and into administrative gridlock. Worst of all, genuine requests from the public, whether it be journalists, researchers, academics or community advocates, will be pushed to the back of the queue, crowded out by unreasonable or abusive demands.

We must protect FOI, but in order to protect FOI we must also protect the integrity of the system that underpins it. We know that over recent years, FOI has increasingly been used not as a tool for accountability but as a tool for harassment or disruption. Public servants who've simply turned up to do their job to serve the community have been subjected to abusive, threatening and excessive FOI requests designed not to seek truth but to intimidate or distract. Agencies have been weighed down by overly broad or malicious requests that consume enormous time and resources without delivering public value.

As an employment lawyer and someone who's had the opportunity to work in operations as well—at St Vincent de Paul—I understand the balancing of WHS operational challenges and protecting workers in their duties. It is paramount that government be a role model for balancing protections for workers with accountability expectations from the community. While government must always be accountable, no system should tolerate abuse of workers, resources or processes. We are here to ensure transparency, not enable harassment. There has to be a balance. Accountability cannot come at the expense of safety or function.

The reforms before us recognise this balance. They modernise the FOI system. They make it fairer, clearer and more efficient. They restore the intention of the act to provide access to information for those genuinely seeking it. Let me outline a couple of key features. Firstly, the reform modernises how requests are made and processed. We live in a digital age; our laws must meet this reality. Secondly, it ends anonymous FOI requests. Transparency cuts both ways. The public deserve transparency from government, and government deserves transparency about who is requesting sensitive information, particularly where national security may be at risk. Thirdly, it ensures decision-makers have adequate time to handle complex requests so that responses are accurate the first time instead of rushed or flawed. Fourthly, it introduces processing caps and the ability to change modest application fees for non-personal information, with waivers for financial hardship. Almost every Australian jurisdiction currently has an initial FOI application fee. This is not about shutting the door on transparency, like we hear from those across the chamber. It is about keeping the door open for genuine users by preventing the system from being overwhelmed. Fifthly, it provides agencies the ability to manage vexatious requests without removing the applicant's right to make future FOI requests. This is proportionate. This is absolutely fair. Sixthly, it clarifies legal ambiguities, especially following the full court's decision in the case of Patrick v Attorney-General, ensuring conventions around cabinet confidentiality and transitions between government are preserved. Ministerial deliberations must be protected. Cabinet confidentiality must be protected. Otherwise, collective responsibility, a core pillar of our Westminster system, will begin to collapse.

These reforms do not weaken accountability. They safeguard the integrity of decision-making while guaranteeing the public's legitimate right to information. The FOI Act was created to shine a light on government, not to bury it under paper, not to threaten its workers and not to compromise its ability to deliver services. This bill brings clarity where there has been a bit of confusion. It brings structure where there has been strain. And, critically, it brings a balance that recognises both the rights of citizens and the responsibilities of government. We must never discourage scrutiny, and we must never shy away from transparency. But we must also ensure that FOI remains a system for accountability, not attrition.

I know members opposite may raise concerns about restricting access or imposing barriers. I say this very clearly: a broken system serves nobody. These reforms give FOI longevity, they ensure public access remains quite meaningful and they ensure genuine requests are prioritised. And, yes, they ensure public money and public time is used responsibly, not drained by a handful of abusive or extreme demands while journalists, community members and advocates wait months or sometimes years to get an answer.

Our commitment to transparency is not negotiable. Our commitment to accountable government is not negotiable. These reforms do not walk away from those commitments. They absolutely strengthen them. They ensure FOI remains a tool for democracy, not a weapon against it. They ensure the system supports fairness, not frustration, and they honour the foundational principle that government information belongs to the people, it belongs to the public, it belongs to us as Australians, and access to that information must be real and reliable.

The strongest democracies are those that evolve. They recognise when systems strain, and they adjust to modern realities with integrity and purpose. This bill is not about closing doors. It's about keeping them open and functional for generations to come. This Labor Albanese government and the FOI reforms are focused on delivering for the Australian people. I commend the bill to the House.

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