‘Truth tax’: Critics slam government plan to charge for FOI requests

On Wednesday (2 September), the Labor government tabled legislation to tighten Australia’s Freedom of Information (FOI) rules. Under the changes, anonymous FOI requests would be banned, and an application fee of roughly $30-$50 would be imposed for requests.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland argued that the changes were necessary to take pressure off the FOI system, arguing that “frivolous or vexatious” requests were costing taxpayers millions.

“It is costing taxpayers, in 2023-24, for example, $86 million to deal with processing, around a million hours taken in doing that,” Rowland told ABC RN Breakfast on Wednesday.

“We've had cases where FOI requests have been generated, sometimes around 600 of them in one instance, going to a small agency, which tied up the services of that agency for over two months.”

However, critics weren’t convinced. The Coalition and the Greens argued that the changes would make it more difficult for the public to access information that they were entitled to, and would have negative knock-on effects for transparency.

“Instead of addressing the fundamental secrecy problems inside the government, Labor has instead decided the issue is with the people trying to access information. That says so much about the Albanese government's arrogance and contempt for the public’s right to know,” Greens senator David Shoebridge said.

"The changes propose a fundamental shift away from the principle that government information belongs to the public and should be freely accessible. It’s a dark day for democracy that this is even on the table.”

Shoebridge said that the FOI system was already “broken,” but adding a charge would make public sector information even more inaccessible to ordinary Australians.

"Information requests routinely take months or years to process, and documents are then heavily redacted with entire pages blacked out for questionable reasons,” Shoebridge said.

“Making information only accessible to those who can pay sells us all out.”

Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser argued that the new FOI rules would amount to a “truth tax” and harm transparency.

“This government talked a big game on transparency when they were in opposition, but since coming to office have gone in the opposite direction,” he said.

“A wholesale truth tax that requires Australians to pay to play on FOI sends a clear message: Labor believes information belongs to them, not the people.”

Labor has maintained that the changes would make it faster to process genuine FOI requests, and argued that the current system, which was established in the 1980s, was no longer fit for purpose.

“Modern technology has made it possible to create large volumes of vague, anonymous, vexatious or frivolous requests – tying up resources, costing taxpayers money and delaying the processing of genuine requests. As technology continues to develop, this will be a growing problem,” Rowland said in a release.

“The Bill also safeguards against potential abuses from anonymous or nefarious offshore actors, and provides greater transparency over who is seeking Australian Government information.”

However, Shoebridge argued that the issues raised by Labor could be addressed with more targeted measures, instead of a blanket fee.

“If you want to target AI bots and foreign actors then first, show us the evidence and second, target them specifically, not the many regular users of this system including whistleblowers, journalists and politicians,” he said.

Without the support of the Greens and the Coalition, the changes to FOI rules are unlikely to pass.