The Advocate
The issue of open government and Freedom of Information (FOI) is again in the news, after the federal government proposed major reforms to the system.
FOI laws allow people to access government documents (subject to exceptions) and are routinely used by journalists, academics and the general public.
The reforms, which are going to a parliamentary committee for review , raise important questions about how we modernise these decades-old laws while ensuring government is transparent and can be easily held to account.
This proposed reform, which severely threatens government transparency, is not the way to do it.
The government says the FOI Amendment Bill will introduce measures to modernise the FOI system and make it more efficient.
Changes include introducing fees for certain appl