EXPLAINER: Howard government puts Albanese government to shame on freedom of information
The Albanese Government announced today they want to charge people a fee for putting in a freedom of information request.
Australians use FOI requests to find out what the government is doing in their name.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland claims the changes are because modern technology allows for a high volume of FOI requests to be made. But the data shows the Albanese government is processing fewer FOI requests than the Howard Government did two decades ago.
What has changed is that each FOI decision costs the taxpayer much more: over $4,000 per FOI request in 2023–24 versus just $730 per request in the last year of the Howard Government.
Accounting for inflation, the FOI system has become three and a half times more expensive per FOI request.
To be honest, I don’t care about the extra cost.
If the quality of our FOI system were three and a half times better, then an extra $61 million a year would be a small price to pay.
Sadly, the opposite is true. If we compare the last year of the Howard Government to the Albanese Government in 2023–24:
- The Howard Government granted 81% of requests in full, versus 25% in full for the Albanese Government
- The Howard Government decided an extra 13,000 requests (34,000 vs just 21,000)
The FOI system isn’t expensive because the government is working hard processing an ever-growing number of requests. Quite the opposite: FOI is expensive and the volume is shrinking because the government delays and denies legitimate requests.
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