Editors --- "Freedom of Information" [2003] AdminRw 6; (2003) 55 Admin Review 33

• Freedom of information
• Twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act
• Commonwealth amendments to the Freedom of Information Act
• State and territory developments
• International developments

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Freedom of information

Twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act

The year 2002 heralded the 20th anniversary of the introduction of freedom of information legislation in Australia. The Freedom of Information Act 1982 was the first legislation of its kind to be introduced into a Westminster-style parliamentary system. It was an extraordinarily innovative piece of legislation at the time, but has it transformed an otherwise secretive bureaucracy and made administrative decision making more transparent?

The Australian Law Reform Commission and the Administrative Review Council jointly reviewed the Act when it was 13 years old. They reported that the Act was designed to make government more open and accountable by allowing individuals to access information in the hands of government. The objectives of the Act were to improve the quality of Commonwealth agencies’ decision making, to allow citizens to be kept informed of the decision-making process as it affects them, and to improve the quality of political democracy by giving all Australians the opportunity to participate fully in the political process.^[1] The Act’s impact after 13 years was significant in transforming the way agencies made decisions and recorded information. The review noted, however, that some parties considered the Act was not achieving its objectives.

Now, after 20 years, we may ask whether the Act continues to be meaningful in the light of changes in government administration and the increasingly pervasive trends to privatisation and outsourcing.

Although recent privacy laws now apply to private sector bodies, freedom of information requirements should generally not be extended to apply to private sector bodies. Such bodies should, however, be subject to certain of those requirements when they contract with government. Freedom of information reform is thus needed, in order to keep pace with the social, political and economic changes that have occurred in the last 20 years.

Commonwealth amendments to the Freedom of Information Act

Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Freedom of Information Act was amended by the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment Act 2002. The amendment deleted ‘National Labour Consultative Council’ and substituted ‘National Workplace Relations Consultative Council’ to accommodate the change in the council’s name.

State and territory developments

The Northern Territory has introduced its Information Act 2002, which covers freedom of information, privacy and records management. As a result, all Australian states and territories now have freedom of information legislation.

The Northern Territory legislation provides for the establishment of an Information Commissioner as an independent statutory officer to oversee the regime. This is consistent with a previous Council recommendation^[2] for the establishment of a Freedom of Information Commissioner to monitor the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act. To date, however, the Commonwealth Government has not taken steps to establish such an office.

International developments

The UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 will become operational in 2005. Prior to the Act the United Kingdom had a Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, a non-statutory scheme that required government departments and defined public authorities to make certain information available to members of the public upon request. In contrast, the Act creates a statutory right of access to information and covers a wider range of public authorities, including local government, National Health Service bodies, schools and colleges, and the police.^[3]

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^[1] Attorney-General’s Department, FOI Annual Report 1982–83, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1983, p. xi.

^[2] Administrative Review Council & Australian Law Reform Commission, Open Government: a review of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, Report no. 40, Administrative Review Council, Canberra, recommendation 18.

^[3] See the Explanatory Notes to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, 2000, par. 6.