Legislative harakiri. A rare win for transparency as FOI bill dead
· Michael West
The Albanese Government’s attempt to further limit transparency has been killed off. Widely condemned and ridiculed, the death of the FOI Amendment Bill is a good thing, says Rex Patrick.
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Yesterday morning, Senator Katy Gallagher walked into the Senate and moved a motion to discharge the FOI Amendment Bill 2025 from the notice paper, meaning it’s no longer up for debate or a vote.
The Bill was purported by Labor to be only administrative in nature. However, in fact, it was a secrecy Bill with a provision to clamp down on transparency around government business related to Cabinet (rather than the actual deliberations of Cabinet) and anything that officials were dealing with that might be controversial.
Civic society mobilised
When the Bill was tabled in the Parliament in September 2025, everyone was caught by surprise. That‘s because no-one … absolutely no-one … outside of Government had seen it.
It was a government openness and transparency bill written exclusively by the government.
It was akin to getting a prison security manual written exclusively by prisoners.
Civic society mobilised; Centre for Public Integrity, Whistleblower Justice Fund, Human Rights Law Centre, Grata Fund, Australian Press Council, Transparency International, Australian Lawyers Alliance, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and many more.
Submissions were made to the Senate, and coordinated advocacy commenced; meetings with MPs, briefings in Parliament, opinion pieces, and even advertising paid for by way of citizen donations.
Paid Advertising in ‘Liberal’ Print Media (Source: Whistleblower Justice Fund)
Parliamentary hiccups
In December, in the last sitting week of the year, an attempt was made to kill the Bill. Senator David Pocock led that effort. He got Coalition and Cross Bench support to bring the Bill on for a two-hour debate with the plan to then vote it out of the Parliament. But the Greens had done a deal with the Government to amend the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and so could not support a change to the Senate’s business that would disrupt dealing with that Bill.
In early February, Senator Fatama Payman moved a motion to discharge the FOI Amendment Bill from the notice paper. She rustled up support for the motion, including the Liberals, but lost their support at the 11th hour because the leadership of the Liberal Party was in disarray and focused on other things. Payman’s attempt thus failed.
Shouted down by common sense. The end of Albo’s secrecy bill?
That led to negotiations in the halls of the Senate wing this week. Payman wanted to try David Pocock’s December approach to bring the Bill on for debate so that it could be voted down. On Wednesday morning, Senator Michaelia Cash got agreement from Angus Taylor to kill the Bill off, and so they agreed to support Payman. All they needed was the Greens, but they asked for more time – “next Tuesday, please”.
Payman responded by deferring action until next Tuesday. It was now set to be punted out of the parliament.
Legislative harakiri
Labor sniffed that the Bill was doomed.
Rather than suffer the humiliation of the Bill being killed by non-government senators, Labor decided to commit legislative harakiri on Thursday with the hope that news of the Bill’s death would be buried by the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address to the House.
Senator Gallagher walked into the Senate and drew her samurai sword. Seppuku occurred, but without the honour.
The disgraceful Bill died a quick death. Thirty minutes into the day, it was slain, and shortly thereafter, the Senate adjourned to allow senators to attend the House to listen to Carney’s speech.
FOI system still needs fixing
In her five-minute contribution to the burial of the Bill, Gallagher foreshadowed that Labor would try again in the future.
Let’s just hope they learn from the experience and consult on changes this time, with a focus on
what works for citizens rather than what works for a secretive government.
Disclosure: Rex Patrick is the founder and director of the not-for-profit Whistleblower Justice Fund mentioned in the story.