Albanese’s office among departments blocking 80% of FoI requests, scathing report finds

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. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email 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 than the mandated 30-day deadline. Among application decisions referred to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for review, 62% were decisions that were changed or overturned, indicating bureaucrats were not adhering fully towards disclosing official information. …