David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the decision of the government to finally listen to the Senate, to listen to experts in our community and to, indeed, listen to the Australian people and dump this bill which would have significantly damaged our already broken FOI system. Listening to contributions, I think the tragedy of the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 is that there is a recognition that the FOI system is out of date and that the act does need to be updated, but there has been nothing from the government to actually consult and to bring forward reforms that do that—that modernise it, that ensure that Australians get access to information held in their name in a more timely way and that we have a government whose default is openness not secrecy.

We hear a lot about the time it's taking and the cost it's taking to process FOIs. When you look at the statistics, it's not hard to see why that is happening. FOI requests granted have fallen from 59 per cent to just 25 per cent. That's a lot of time deciding which shouldn't be released. Refusals have nearly doubled, from 12 per cent to 23 per cent. Again, there's a lot of time in that. FOI review times have blown out from six months to 15½ months. I think most Australians would say that is totally unacceptable. This is an example of the Senate doing its job as a check on executive power, as a check on an executive which is seeking to protect itself, to reduce scrutiny and, as I've said a number of times, even go against the recommendations of the robodebt royal commission and to learn from that. This is an executive that is seeking to be able to operate in the dark. That is not aligned with Australian values and what the Australian public want and expect.

I would also, as Senator Shoebridge did, like to thank the Centre for Public Integrity for their leadership in this space, for the work they do and for their clarity of thought. They said that the proposed amendments represent 'an unprecedented and unjustified attack on the right of Australians to access government information'. I also join Senator Shoebridge in thanking the Human Rights Law Centre for their powerful advocacy in this space.

There are just far too many problems with this bill to go into, but I have been really concerned—again, as Senator Shoebridge pointed out—about the claims that there were foreign bots churning out FOI requests, which were proven through the inquiry process to be demonstrably untrue. There was simply no evidence that could be produced by the government or government departments that that is the case.

One of the other claims, which I agree is a big issue in service delivery for the government, was some of the threats, and we know that some examples given of threats in the FOI system actually did not relate to the FOI system. They were to do with Comcare. I have real concerns, again, about a government that is willing to actually use evidence over here to back up something that it is trying to do in this other space. That is a real concern when you look at the government's narrative on this bill.

We should be looking for ways to improve FOI. Firstly, we have to say that a default to openness rather than secrecy is how we reform FOI. The government would be saving public servants, who are doing incredibly valuable work, hundreds of thousands or potentially a million hours if there were a default to openness rather than this culture where, as I showed yesterday—and I won't use a prop again—we're just getting blacked-out pages from the government.

I think the second one is looking to technology solutions available through innovative Australian companies. We know that companies like Nuvento, right here in Canberra, are saying that they have secure offline systems that can rapidly transform FOI by actually finding the information and ensuring that it gets to the people who want that information sooner. It's curious that the government isn't looking at those solutions. You have to say, 'Well, people might actually get the information that they're after, and that doesn't suit the blacked-out pages and the secrecy we're seeing.' I welcome the Senate doing this, and I'd urge the government to engage. Let's do this properly. Let's, in this place, actually act on behalf of Australians.

Question agreed to.