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Labor’s FOI changes threaten open government

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Publication Date,
September 16, 2025
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September 16, 2025

Originally published in the Financial Review

“The health of our democracy, the integrity of our institutions, the transparency and fairness of our laws. These aren’t just noble ideals. They are a powerful defence against the threat of modern authoritarianism.”

Those words were spoken by then opposition leader Anthony Albanese in March 2022 – barely two months before he moved into The Lodge.

He is right, but the record shows his government has struggled to match this standard.

According to the Centre for Public Integrity, this is the least transparent government since the Keating government.

All fair-minded Australians expect their government to operate with transparency and accountability.

Regrettably, Australia’s government is not meeting this standard, and there are two examples that demonstrate the decline.

Firstly, the government is blocking access to information about policies Australians assumed were settled. In a recent case, the key assumptions justifying the unrealised superannuation gains tax are being suppressed.

A reasonable person would expect that modelling for a finalised policy measure would be made publicly available upon request. It merely sets out how the bureaucracy believes the new tax will operate and any effects it might have on the economy and individuals.

However, Treasury refused my Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking the modelling and assumptions underpinning the unrealised gains tax.

This tax was first announced in the 2023-24 budget and factored into the forward estimates. Treasury refused to release the modelling, claiming it was “deliberative” and protected by legal professional privilege.

Treasury revealed it had sought legal advice to ward off litigation and challenges to the proposed revenue stream – clear evidence that there are concerns with the concept and design.

Treasury also admitted the tax remains “under active development” and is still a “work in progress”.

Yet on July 14, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said: “From a government point of view, our focus has been on the changes that we announced two and a half years ago, which haven’t yet been legislated. We haven’t been proposing to take additional steps. We haven’t been working up additional steps to take.”

Both things can’t be true. Either the government has a settled tax policy or it does not. Labor announced this tax during its last term and reaffirmed it during the election. Yet what it says publicly does not align with its private doubts.

A July study by the Centre for Public Integrity found Labor had complied with just one-third of Senate orders for documents.

Even the strongest supporters of a tax on unrealised gains would concede there are issues to be resolved.

Accordingly, a reasonable person would expect the FOI Act, if complied with, would aid the debate by ensuring Treasury’s analysis is publicly available for scrutiny.

But that is not happening. I have appealed the Treasury’s decision to block access.

Secondly, the government is making it harder to access information more broadly.

Again, a reasonable person would expect their government to comply with orders of the Senate and requests for documents made under FOI.

Yet a July study by the Centre for Public Integrity found Labor had complied with just one-third of Senate orders for documents, relying on public interest immunity claims almost three times as often as the Morrison government to block scrutiny. This is a terrible result considering the benchmark.

Additionally, the Centre found that FOI requests granted in full have fallen from 59 per cent in 2011-12 to 25 per cent in 2023-24, while outright refusals rose from 12 per cent to 23 per cent.

The Fraser government introduced FOI because it understood that Australians benefit from open government.

As Malcolm Fraser said: “The principle of responsibility to the electorate and the parliament is a vital one which must be maintained and strengthened, because it is the people’s control over the direction of government and the destiny of the nation.”

Now the government is proposing changes to the FOI Act that would diminish transparency and the opportunity for review and input.

These proposed changes would not only increase the cost of an FOI; they would also expand exemptions for cabinet confidentiality to virtually any document within the Commonwealth. It would gut the FOI Act.

As the former independent senator Rex Patricks puts it: “Albanese wants to deny the public access to information it should be entitled to see; advice being given to ministers that will, by its very nature, affect citizens’ lives.”

These measures risk undermining open government and weakening the ability of journalists, citizens and parliamentarians to scrutinise government.

The Senate must reject these proposals. It should also consider whether we have the right tools to compel the production of documents, and look to protect FOI, rather than gut it.

In the age of autocracy, we must remember what the hallmarks of democracy are – most of them start with transparency.

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