The federal government is flouting laws designed to expose its decisions to scrutiny,with internal emails revealing that top officials are “unfazed” by the breaches of the Freedom of Information Act.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s own department has defied the law on repeated requests for information,forcing applicants to wait for decisions with no explanation for the delays.
The Department of Home Affairs has also confirmed that it is up to 131 days overdue on one application,far outside the statutory requirement to respond within 30 days of a request.
The results fuel the debate over the public’s right to know about government policies and decisions at a time when publishers are calling for more transparency including stronger adherence to the FOI law.
Labor cited the responses to several of its FOI requests as examples of the government breaching the law.
Advisers to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese sought documents from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as far back as August relating to media analysis and Question Time preparation,but they are still waiting for decisions.
One request was for a document provided to ministers after the last election that outlined the audience size for different media outlets,seen as guiding ministers on their media appearances.
In another case,Labor lodged questions about the handling of one of its FOI requests to government agency Austrac and obtained a series of emails that confirmed officials knew they were breaking the rules.
One email between Austrac officials in September said a supervisor “understood the consequences of not meeting the statutory deadline and indicated he was pretty unfazed by it”.
There were 38,879 requests under FOI across the Australian government last year,with 83 per cent of them seeking personal information and a majority of them lodged with the departments of Home Affairs,Human Services and Veterans'Affairs.