‘A win for democracy’: Labor abandons freedom of information law changes that would have reduced transparency | Freedom of information

The Labor government has scrapped controversial changes to the freedom of information request system, which would have imposed new fees and further reduced transparency, after admitting there was no way of getting it through parliament.

But finance minister Katy Gallagher said despite the major backtracking, the Albanian government was still committed to reforming the FoI system and criticized public servants having to spend so much time responding to government requests for information and decisions.

government Changes to the FoI system The cabinet could impose stricter rules on access to information, including new grounds for rejecting requests based on confidentiality, a ban on anonymous requests and rules to discourage what the government calls “annoying and frivolous” requests. Labor has complained that AI allows mass demands to flood FoI systems and shut down government departments, but the government has never provided concrete evidence for such claims.

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A staff member at a government agency expressed concern that an email every five minutes could “break something” in their system.

Labour’s proposal would also introduce new charges against journalists, politicians and other experts seeking access to government information. Similar fees at the state and territory level can be around $50 each.

But the government has moved to remove its own plan from the parliamentary schedule after Guardian Australia reported the Coalition was preparing to vote against the bill when it is introduced to the Senate on Thursday.

Gallagher told the Senate on Thursday morning that the government had accepted the bill did not have the support of parliament and would not pass. As he spoke, a member of the Coalition benches intervened and said “well done”, while others shouted “hear, hear”.

But the minister said that although the current bill will be withdrawn, the government still plans to make changes to the FoI system and has flagged a new form of the bill in the future to fix what he called an “unworkable” system that is “stuck in the 1980s”. It claimed that 43,000 FoI requests in the last financial year cost the government nearly $100 million in processing time and more than 1 million man hours, and alleged that government employees face security risks due to the current system.

“We are open-minded and will continue to work on the final form of important reforms that we will bring back to parliament to fix the FoI system, which I think we all agree needs to be updated,” Gallagher said.

The minister did not say what the next version of the bill would look like but said it would make the system more “efficient”.

Attorney general Michelle Rowland has been contacted for comment.

Opposition Senate leader and shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash called the government’s step back “a victory for democracy.” He agreed that changes were needed to the FoI system, but called for reforms to address “delays, backlogs and abusive behaviour”.

An FoI investigation in 2023 described the system as “dysfunctional and broken”, with years of funding cuts, a “lack of results” and a lack of senior pro-disclosure “champions” in the civil service. In 2025, the Center for Public Integrity accused the Albanian government of having a worse record than Scott Morrison’s Coalition in producing documents for public review.

“Every day in this chamber, whether here or elsewhere, we see the erosion of democracy… Forget transparency, they close the door every chance they get,” Cash said.

Cash claimed in a statement that the step back “humiliated” the government.

“This bill had not a single friend outside the civil service. The coalition, all other parties and all sections, all major media outlets, all integrity institutions and civil society groups across the country opposed it,” he said.

“Freedom of information is not a privilege granted by the government at its discretion. It is a democratic guarantee, a mechanism by which citizens are held accountable. This government tried to eliminate this guarantee and was stopped.

“The Freedom of Information framework needs to be overhauled, but in the right way, not in Labour’s backroom way.”

Greens senator David Shoebridge said Labor’s changes would make the FoI system slower, more expensive and more secretive.

“This bill was written by a government that was arrogant and addicted to secrecy. This bill had no friends inside or outside parliament and Labor eventually passed it,” he claimed.

“Labour’s attack was never about fixing the FOI for the public; it was about making it harder to see what the government was doing.

“The problem with FOIs is not that the public gets too much information, nor that the government spends a million bureaucratic hours a year rejecting and issuing applications.”

Rex Patrick, a former senator who now runs a consultancy focusing on government accountability, and Kieran Pender of the Human Rights Law Center said Labor should now take the opportunity to undertake a comprehensive review of the FoI system to improve transparency.

“Now is the time for real reform through an independent process. If Labor cares about transparency, now is the time to prove it,” Patrick said.

“People have the right to know what governments are doing. Freedom of information is vital to a healthy, transparent and accountable democracy,” Pender added.