Inquiry into the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025
14 October 2025
On 3 September 2025, the Australian Government introduced the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025. The Law Council made a submission to the Senate Legislation and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Inquiry into the Bill on 3 October 2025.
The Law Council recommended that the Bill not pass in its current form, citing a number of concerns with key provisions within the Bill that tend to work against the core tenets of freedom of information (FOI)—namely, government accountability and public scrutiny.
While the Law Council welcomed efforts to streamline and clarify processes, and included recommendations supporting some provisions of the Bill, the Law Council was concerned by provisions that would reduce transparency, implement barriers to the public accessing information, and enlarge the scope of exemptions.
The Law Council raised particular concerns in relation to the following proposed reforms:
- amendments to the objects of the A change in section 3 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) which would dilute the focus from on public participation and scrutiny of government activities;
- additional powers for agencies or ministers to refuse to deal with requests which they are satisfied are ‘vexatious or frivolous’, ‘harassing’ or ‘intimidating’ or otherwise likely to have the effect of ‘causing harm’, or otherwise an ‘abuse of process’;
- a new requirement for a person making an FOI requires to provide identifying information;
- the introduction of a discretionary 40-hour cap as a threshold for a practical refusal;
- the potential for the introduction of application fees to limit the capacity of the most vulnerable to access information relevant to rights, duties and legitimate expectations; and
- amendments to the Cabinet documents exemption which would have the effect of enlarging the range of documents able to be captured by the exemption.
In addition, the Law Council recommended that an independent review of the FOI Act and the broader operation of the freedom of information framework should be undertaken before an future legislative reform is proposed.
Last Updated on 14/10/2025
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