Rarely, if ever, do we here at Caldron Pool find any common ground with the Greens.

Well, last week, a Greens Senator handed us an exception to that rule.

Senator for New South Wales David Shoebridge has slammed the Albanese Government on X, stating that Labor’s new Freedom of Information (FOI) amendments would hinder government accountability.

Speaking out about his participation in the three-month Senate inquiry into Albo’s FOI adjustments, Shoebridge said, 

“Only a government addicted to secrecy “looks at FOI and thinks ‘the problem here is that the public gets too much information.’”

Listing his concerns, Shoebridge stated that the Albo-Marles changes would:

1. Ban whistleblowers from anonymous FOI requests. 

2. Charge you more to access your own information. 

3. Massively expand what they can hide from you.

Sharing some of our misgivings with regards to the outcome of Caldron Pool’s FOI about censorship filed earlier this year, the Greens senator said, 

“We know FOI is broken: late responses, heavy redactions, missing documents.”

“Labor’s bill fixes none of this and would make many aspects worse,” Shoebridge concluded.

He then described the ham-fisted bill as a “hubris-driven attack on transparency.”

Handing down his findings in a dissenting report on December 3, the Greens Senator said, “the evidence is overwhelmingly against this bill.”

The bill makes FOI more expansive, more secretive, and much slower.

He also accused Labor’s excuses for making the amendments of being “shaky at best.”

There was no evidence that AI abuse, bots and foreign interference were putting pressure on the FOI system.

For example, “under Australia’s existing FOI law, bots cannot make requests, so this clearly cannot be a justification for this bill,” Shoebridge said. 

On the foreign interference excuse, he explained that the intelligence agency requests in question came from “the Attorney-General’s Department.”

“There were no [adequate] examples provided of FOI being used by foreign actors to harm Australia.”

The greater harm is Labor “destroying our FOI system, as this bill proposes,” Shoebridg continued.

Ironically, this “would be a victory for undemocratic and secretive forces, both onshore and offshore.” 

Of significance, in his dissent, Shoebridge seemed to argue that the lack of evidence suggested Labor was using AI, bots, and foreign interference as a pretext.

Labor’s real aim with the bill, his criticism strongly implied, was crushing the ability of Australians to access government information about themselves. 

“You shouldn’t have to be a lawyer to access public information,” he declared.

“It is in the interests of good governance to foster accountability for government decisions.”

It’s also about reassuring “the community that public information being held on their behalf, is not the private, secret property of the government.”

Aligning with every party other than Labor, who dominate the Senate, the Greens rightly recommended the bill be thrown out.

Supporting the call, Independent Senator David Pocock said, “The Albanese government must have a lot to hide if they’re so afraid of scrutiny.”

“Transparency, different perspectives and robust policy debates build a stronger democracy.”

“We need safeguards and better practices to document government decision-making in the digital age,” he asserted.

This is so that “our integrity doesn’t disappear along with the signal messages. “

The consensus from dissenters seems to be that this bill further distances the Australian government from the people its representatives are elected to serve.

While absent from offering a dissenting report because of an intense focus on opposing Digital ID, One Nation voted with the LNP, Lambie and the Greens in opposition to the bill.

Outspoken One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has previously illustrated why they are opposed to the bill.

In 2023, Roberts pointed to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s ridiculous response to FOI about COVID, where the reply came back with everything redacted.

Joining the list of unanimous dissenters, the LNP declared that,

“Freedom of Information is not a privilege given by the government. It is a right owed to every Australian citizen.”

They’ve advocated for a fairer, more efficient service that will not hinder government “transparency and accountability.”

Never let it be said that Caldron Pool was unfair to the Greens.

As the saying goes, “we must be in for rain,” they got something right for once.