The senate inquiry into freedom of information (FOI) requests is an opportunity for public servants to shed light on their concerns, says Australia Institute’s Bill Browne.
The senate voted to establish an inquiry into FOI requests, including how FOI commissioner Leo Hardiman resigned from his position.
Speaking to The Mandarin, the democracy and accountability program director said the inquiry was a platform for bureaucrats to voice concerns under parliamentary privilege.
“We saw with the review into the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last year that these inquiries can give people a chance to talk about the inner workings of these systems and reveal some of the problems with what’s going on,” Browne said.
“Public servants have this opportunity to speak out, which they might have struggled to do in the past.”
Browne urged public servants who deal with FOI requests to remember that the public service is “frank and fearless”.
“That means following the law, including meeting their obligations to the public,” Browne commented.
“And we can see just from the number of delays and appeals, that the FOI system is not currently serving the needs of the public.”
The senate inquiry will look at Hardiman’s resignation, resourcing for FOI applications and reviews, and whether a statutory timeframe for reviews should be established.
The inquiry was passed by the Greens, the Coalition and the crossbench. Browne pointed out the passing of the inquiry shows the senate’s ability to hold the parliament to account, a view he’s previously expressed in an opinion piece for The Mandarin co-written with Ben Oquist.
“Casting a light on how bad Australia’s FOI system has gotten will help build the case for those deeper reforms, both to FOI laws in particular, but also to the public service more generally, and how it relates to the government versus its obligations to the public,” Browne added.
Earlier this month, Hardiman resigned over the timeliness of information commissioner (IC) reviews, feeling the change necessary was not in his powers as FOI commissioner.
“I have come to the view that I will not be able, in the absence of those changes, to increase the timeliness of IC reviews and access in a way which best promotes the objects of the FOI Act,” Hardiman wrote at the time.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) previously told The Mandarin with regards to the court case with former senator Rex Patrick over FOI concerns, the office sought to resolve the review as efficiently as possible. OAIC noted COVID-19 had impacted its “significant legacy caseload and an increasing number of IC reviews”.
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