'Labor's lost interest in transparency': Another year of a broken FOI scheme

Australia’s Freedom of Information laws are failing citizens and journalists alike, characterized by systemic delays, obstruction, and a cultural presumption against transparency. Despite being critical for uncovering government misconduct, the FOI system is crippled by under-resourcing and bureaucratic inertia, resulting in significant backlogs and heavily redacted documents that hinder public accountability. Recent investigations reveal that these failures obscure serious issues, such as police cover-ups and excessive costs associated with official inquests. The Senate inquiry concluded that the regime is not functioning as intended, a situation exacerbated by historical defunding of regulatory bodies. However, this breakdown is bipartisan, with current leadership rejecting blame and failing to implement necessary reforms, thereby perpetuating the cycle of opacity. This situation is vital to open data discourse because it illustrates that access to information depends not just on legal frameworks, but on implementation and political will. Without a genuine presumption in favor of disclosure and adequate resources, even robust data laws cannot guarantee transparency. The article highlights that open data initiatives must address cultural resistance within government agencies to ensure that publicly funded information is actually accessible and usable.

Source: crikey.com.au
Published on 2023-12-13

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