Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

This is an important reform, and the government remains committed to it. Freedom of information is a vital feature of our democracy, but the way the FOI system is working now is unworkable. The current framework is stuck in the 1980s—before smartphones, before artificial intelligence—and our laws genuinely need to be updated. Last year, public servants spent more than a million hours processing FOIs. We continue to listen to the feedback that we are getting across the parliament, but we do seek to negotiate in good faith to progress this important reform. For example, we previously amended the bill in the House to ensure a person with a legitimate reason for wanting to make an anonymous FOI request, such as a whistleblower, can ask for a member of parliament, journalist, lawyer or friend to make an FOI request for non-personal information on their behalf while maintaining their anonymity.

We have an open mind and will continue to engage on the final form of the important reforms that we will bring back to the parliament to get on with fixing the FOI system, which I think we all agree needs updating. The current bill will be discharged today while we undertake that important work. We are genuinely after reforms that will make the system more efficient and genuine for applicants; protect the safety of public servants, which is incredibly important; save taxpayers money on frivolous and vexatious requests; and ensure our FOI laws cannot be exploited by malicious actors.

I will go through this briefly in the time that is allowed to me. Agencies and ministers received 43,456 FOI requests and finalised 39,390 requests in the 2024-25 financial year—a 20 per cent increase from the year before. In 2024-25, FOI processing was estimated to cost agencies almost $100 million, significantly more than the costs that were experienced just a few years ago. Public servants, as I said earlier, spent over a million hours in 2024-25 processing FOIs.

So why do we need to reform? What has changed? The FOI Act commenced in 1982, and the system is still stuck in the 1980s, long before the digital age, before the widespread use of email and many decades before smartphones and other modern technologies. At the time the FOI Act commenced, the number of electronic records created by government and the speed at which they are created was unimaginable. Also unimaginable in 1982 was the impact of the internet, which has made it possible for anyone anywhere in the world to generate large volumes of vague, anonymous, vexatious or frivolous requests without it costing them a dollar. As technology continues to develop, this will be a growing problem. When they are brought back, our FOI reforms will make the system more efficient and effective for the people who are genuinely seeking information. Our reforms will also protect the safety of public servants, save taxpayers' money on those requests that are frivolous and vexatious and ensure our FOI laws cannot be exploited by malicious actors.

I have seen plenty of evidence of the inappropriate threats that are made to public servants through the current ways that FOI is being used and utilised. It is unacceptable. The government does have a responsibility to act and ensure the safety of staff across the APS. This is not a joke. These are people who are having their home addresses identified, who are having widespread threats against their own individual safety and their families' safety because of the way the system is currently being worked and being abused, and the government needs to respond to that. As Minister for the Public Service, I say that this is a growing problem across the service, it should not be diminished and we should accept the responsibility that exists to make sure that the system in place serves the purpose it needs to serve in terms of freedom of information but also is not abused by those who have other intentions.