Questions without notice – Freedom of Information

Parliament House, Canberra
E&OE

Subjects: Freedom of Information

Mr ROB MITCHELL (McEwen): My question is to the Attorney-General. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of integrity and transparency frameworks?

Ms ROWLAND (Greenway—Attorney-General): I thank the member for his question. Today the Albanese government introduced new legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Freedom of information is a vital feature of our democracy. It provides transparency and accountability of government and enables Australians to access their personal information. However, it is absolutely the case, as the Prime Minister has said, that the Freedom of Information Act remains stuck in the 1980s—well before the widespread use of email or more recent advances in artificial intelligence. You will not find a stakeholder who says the system works well, so reform is clearly needed.

That is why the legislation introduced today seeks to ban anonymous requests, stop abuses of the framework by vexatious and frivolous requests, make the law clearer when it comes to cabinet and deliberative material exemptions, and establish procedures for the handling of the records of former ministers.

Let me give you an example of why the current system is broken. In one instance, a small agency received nearly 600 FOI requests, in a short period of time, from an automated generator. This resulted in the diversion of an entire Public Service team from their work for more than three months. Mr Speaker, you may ask which agency that was. That agency was eSafety, whose core mission is to keep Australian children safe online. Hardworking taxpayers, who already fund over a million hours of FOI processing a year, would expect eSafety to be focused on their task of protecting children rather than processing a mountain of frivolous FOI requests from online trolls.

The Albanese government will also not continue to tolerate a framework which allows offshore actors whose capabilities are enhanced with artificial intelligence to anonymously lodge FOI requests seeking information held by the Australian government. The idea that our laws could permit a foreign state to anonymously seek access to information about recent government decisions without us even knowing it is simply untenable. The government will refer its FOI legislation to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee for scrutiny and continue to engage with stakeholders and across the parliament on these reforms.

FOI also forms part of a broader transparency and integrity framework which this government is continuing to strengthen. The government is delivering on its commitment to continue to enhance Australia's public sector whistleblowing framework. These reforms will establish a new whistleblower ombudsman, which will be the most significant addition to the federal integrity landscape since this government established the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Following consultation, we intend to introduce legislation into the parliament as soon as possible. The Albanese government is committed to progressing reforms that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our integrity frameworks.