Liberals accuse Labor of secrecy for withholding PM’s letters to ministers – despite Coalition doing the same | Freedom of information
Liberals accused the Albanian government of a culture of secrecy for its refusal to disclose the prime minister’s letters to his ministers explaining their responsibilities, although the former Coalition government also did not disclose the letters.
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic’s freedom of information request was rejected by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, citing national security and cabinet solidarity concerns. The rejection was not unprecedented; The former Morrison government also rejected Guardian Australia’s freedom of information request regarding the letters in 2021.
The Ministry completely blocked the publication of 23 letters, stating that 21 were “cabinet documents”, 6 were “documents affecting national security, defense or international relations”, all were part of “negotiation processes” and all could reveal “certain operations of the agencies”.
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Geoffrey Watson, a former lawyer assisting the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption and now with the Center for Public Integrity, said the latest refusal showed the government was “obsessed” with secrecy and disputed the argument that the letters could be considered cabinet documents.
“I think it’s odd that all these categories can be applied to such documents. Even the general claim that they are [are] “Cabinet documents clearly do not,” he said.
“These are actually instructions given to him. [a] A particular minister on which areas they should focus on or comment on within the scope of a fair ministerial mandate… It’s really just a matter of the prime minister’s office allocating who will do what and what issue they will talk about in the cabinet. “This is not a cabinet document just because it came out of a cabinet member’s office.”
Watson said that on issues related to national security and defense, the answer would be to “edit the entire document, not hide it.”
“This appears to be yet another example of this government’s obsession with secrecy.”
No Australian prime minister has published engagement letters, but other jurisdictions nationally and internationally have been more transparent.
The Queensland state government publishes each minister’s engagement letter, the EU commission publishes mandate letters for commissioners, and Canada issues mandate letters to ministers outlining their responsibilities.
In response to questions from Guardian Australia, a Prime and Cabinet spokesman said it was “not appropriate to comment on specific matters”.
“PM&C takes its legal obligations seriously and processes all requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982,” they said. “All applicants are provided with advice regarding the reasons for decisions and their review rights.”
The Labor government is under fire over proposed changes to freedom of information legislation that would extend cabinet document exemptions and exemptions for negotiation processes. This will make it even easier for FoI officers to refuse the release of a document on these grounds.
Labor’s arguments for the reforms included claims that AI robots were making FoI requests, but at a committee hearing on the bill in the Senate on 17 October the Home Office and Australian Services were told there was no evidence that AI robots were making FoI requests.
They noted that the FoI law already ensures that FoI requests made by bots do not need to be taken into account.
Following his request, Kovacic accused the government of presiding over a culture of secrecy.
“From a massive increase in FoI rejections to the weaponization of nondisclosure agreements in stakeholder negotiations to a secret guide telling government officials how to avoid answering questions in the Senate estimates, this government has shown that its promise of transparency is nothing more than a pre-election talking point,” he said. Kovacic joins parliament in 2023, following the Morrison government.
