Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition is opposed to the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025, lock, stock and smoking barrel. I acknowledge the amendments that were moved by the Attorney-General, and I thank her for doing so, but they do not remedy all of the many problems that have been raised by my parliamentary colleagues and many stakeholders. This bill does not have a friend, apart from the Public Service. When every stakeholder, the crossbench and the coalition are combining to say that the bill is extremely problematic, it is incumbent on the government to have a very long, hard look at the bill.

As many of my colleagues have mentioned so far, the concept of freedom of information is a fundamental tenet of our democracy. Our democracy can be inconvenient at times. That's the price you pay for living in a democracy. I get it. I understand that sometimes requests for freedom of information may be difficult and arduous, but the concept of putting these 40-hour time limits on requests for information goes against the very basis of freedom of information. It goes against the very basis of a bulwark of our democracy—

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