Senate panel’s Labor members disagree with report, saying opposition-led probe failed to acknowledge Coalition’s ‘longstanding attempts to weaken’ FoI laws
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Australia’s freedom of information regime has become “dysfunctional and broken” after years of funding and resourcing neglect and chronic backlogs caused in part by a pro-secrecy culture within the bureaucracy, a Senate committee has found.
The recent resignation of the freedom of information commissioner, who was less than 12 months into a five-year term, has also been described as a “symptom” of the troubles faced by the system designed to make federal government processes transparent.
The watchdog has been facing increasing scrutiny in recent years as a result of an ever-growing backlog of requests to review FoI decisions, hampered by bureaucratic and legislative roadblocks.
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