Spirit of FoI laws inverted
FROM whales harpooned in our oceans to a money trail from foreign investors paying their way into Australia — these are just a couple of the scores of right-to-information requests made by News Corp that have been knocked back by government officials.
The dossier of denials should be shocking but testimony before the Senate’s Press Freedom Inquiry has heard rejections of this kind have become commonplace and part of a larger “culture of secrecy” taking hold in Australia.
Experts say a comprehensive review of 37-year-old Freedom of Information laws is years overdue, year-long delays are rife, and the public is being robbed of its right to know.
Examples of information requests the Australian government has tried to block include video of live export cruelty and details of foreign investments used as part of a controversial visa scheme.
Electronic Frontiers Australia policy committee chair Angus Murray said the examples showed Australians were being denied information on topics they “absolutely” had a right to know about, and the Government’s failure to deliver on FOI reform or protect whistleblowers was alarming.
“Our government is chilling a heap of freedoms, including attempting to silence whistleblowers and introducing very intrusive surveillance powers,” he said.
“History has taught us that when we wander down the path of government censorship that turns into a society that has dangerous hallmarks attached to it.”
Lawyer and FOI consultant Peter Timmins said the laws designed to give Australians access to information had helped to uncover corruption, fraud, systemic failures and other issues but information requests were now being routinely refused or denied.
“There are a lot of delaying tactics involved and there’s a bit of a mentality that exceptions are there to be claimed.
“The spirit and intent (of FOI) is that people are entitled to get what they ask for unless there’s a very good reason why they shouldn’t. There’s been a bit of an inversion of that,” he said. “There are certainly lots of important things that have been kept confidential or secret.”