It has been likened to a scene from the classic TV comedy-drama The Hollowmen,where documents are wheeled through cabinet to keep them secret.
Former military lawyer David McBride’s legal team hoped he would avoid jail because he exposed problems in the national interest. Now they are thinking the worst.
Less than a year after he became the first FOI Commissioner in seven years,Leo Hardiman has quit,saying he can’t make the changes needed to fix the system.
A “culture of secrecy” is seeing more freedom of information requests being denied and delayed,a report has found,with impacts on government accountability.
Lachlan Murdoch is racing ahead in the betting game
The government could face an embarrassing loss of control of the Senate next month over cuts to independents’ staff allocations.
Former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon is running for the Senate again,more than four years after he left federal politics.
Regulations that shielded directors and executives from investor scrutiny have survived just three days before being tossed aside by the Senate,with opponents claiming they were only put in place to protect the government’s largest political donors.
The Australian Information Commissioner says if Parliament passes national cabinet protections it must ensure information is still released about its decisions.
If not for a Pauline Hanson sidestep,the Parliament would have forced the government to reveal details of businesses that received billions in JobKeeper support that they didn’t need. But the attempt to impose transparency isn’t over yet.
Senator Rex Patrick has succeeded in his appeal for documents from national cabinet to be made available under FOI.