Albanese’s department among those blocking 80% of FoI requests, scathing report finds

Key points

• A scathing audit report has found nearly 80% of freedom of information requests to Anthony Albanese’s department, Treasury and the infrastructure department were rejected, creating a culture of “resistance and delay” in the Australian parliament.
• The review of FoI administration found there was no consistent, transparent or accountable decision-making around requests and the pro-disclosure objectives of the law were being flouted.
• The auditor general considered some of more than 43,000 applications received by the Albanese government in 2024-25, finding the departments did not have appropriate policies and procedures to meet transparency obligations and were not maintaining adequate FoI records.
• Last financial year, 79% of applications were refused in full or in part and 57% of applications resulted in no documents being released.
• Department disclosure logs for FoI applications were found to be incomplete and not in accordance with the law while 63% of requests were subject to longer response times...