G’day John,
When the Albanese Labor government was elected they promised greater transparency but they have totally failed! In their first term of government, Labor blocked more documents requested by the Senate than the Scott Morrison government!
This week – just a few weeks into their second term they have announced that they intend to change our Freedom of Information (FOI) Laws – making it even harder to find out what the government is doing!
Australians have had the right under FOI to ask the government for documents on any issue, except for national security and cabinet papers, since 1982.
I am all up for looking at the Freedom of Information Act – but unlike the government - I want to make it stronger.
The changes they want to make include charging for FOI requests, and if a public servant makes a bad decision – they will charge you again to have that decision reviewed. So they make a mistake but you have to pay!
The current FOI legislation means you can request and gain access to briefs given to ministers from public servants. The proposed changes will mean that the government can block any document being released that they think is too important to be seen by everyday Australians.
As I told the ABC on Thursday – if government wants to fix our transparency laws – they should just try being more bloody transparent!
I am going to campaign hard on this – transparency and government accountability is absolutely key to a healthy functioning democracy.
It’s our money they’re spending and we have a right to know what decisions the government is making in our name.
