Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Science) Share this | Hansard source

In continuance, I might repeat some of the words that I've just said, but I think they're worth repeating. This bill damages public trust. It tells citizens that the government doesn't trust them with the truth. When people can't access information, they can't form an informed opinion, and that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Freedom of information is not a privilege granted by government; it is a right owed to every Australian citizen. When you limit what citizens can know, you limit what they can decide.

The coalition stands for open government, a free press and the people's right to know. We will engage constructively with the Senate inquiry and consider amendments that are genuinely there to protect transparency, including removing the most restrictive provisions in schedules 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8. But make no mistake. As it stands now, this bill is indefensible. It ignores the expert advice of the 2023 Senate inquiry, it expands secrecy, delays access, discourages applications and imposes new costs on citizens. It turns a system built for accountability into a fortress for concealment.

So you have to ask yourself: what is Labor so scared of and what is the bureaucracy so scared of? Labor says this bill will modernise the freedom-of-information framework, when , in truth, it will take Australia backwards—back to the days when government decisions were made behind closed doors and the public was told only what it was allowed to know. Democracy dies in the darkness, and this bill is darkness by design. The coalition will oppose the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 because transparency should not depend on convenience. The truth should never come with a price tag.

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