Coalition, Greens team up to block Labor’s controversial laws
The Coalition and the Greens have united to oppose the bill in the Senate, while Labor’s plans to restrict public access to government information will not pass parliament.
Fees on freedom of information requests, a ban on anonymous submissions and guardrails on what information can be disclosed were at the heart of the bill, which the government said was designed to ease pressure on the public service and combat disturbing allegations.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney General Michelle Rowland. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The coalition said it would not support the bill, while the Greens said it could not pass the Senate without a complete rewrite; because MPs in both chambers described the changes as a tax on the truth.
“You can’t make a silk purse from a pig’s ear. Every stakeholder except the civil service has condemned this bill,” shadow attorney general Andrew Wallace told a press conference in Canberra after the government passed the bill through the House of Representatives on Thursday morning.
“The concept of freedom of information is a fundamental principle of our democracy, and this government continues to shroud its activities in secrecy.”
Any person or organization in Australia or abroad may make a request to government agencies or ministers for access to documents and communications between the parties. Journalists and politicians regularly use the system to hold the government to account.
The Greens and the Coalition are joining forces in the Senate for the second time in two weeks. The upper house became a battleground over transparency issues last week after senators called for the release of the jobs report for friends retained by the cabinet for more than two years. The government finally agreed to publish the report by the end of December.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland first proposed the FOI changes in September, arguing they would “strengthen” the system, which she said was “stuck in the 1980s”. The government accused AI and bad actors of subverting the system and getting in the way of legitimate demands.
Part of the original proposal included banning anonymous solicitations. This feature was removed from the bill by a government amendment before it passed the lower house.
