Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The Freedom of Information Legislation Amendment (Improving Access and Transparency) Bill 2018 seeks to address some of the failings of the FOI system as it has been operating for the past seven years under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. Clearly, Senator Patrick is frustrated about the way in which the government continues to trash the freedom-of-information system, and Labor shares Senator Patrick's frustration. There is no doubt that the freedom-of-information system, designed to make the government more accountable to the people who elected it, has been absolutely trashed over the past seven years of this government.

This government hates scrutiny. This government has contempt for basic notions of accountability. This is a government that prefers to operate in the shadows. It is not difficult to see why, because, every time sunlight does find a way in, Australians do not like what they see. Whether it's sports rorts, Angus Taylor's latest outrage, the awarding of contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to companies headquartered in beach shacks or the government's shocking and scandalous record on aged care, the Morrison government does not want Australians to know what it is up to. Make no mistake: that is why the government hates our FOI laws and treats those laws with such contempt. That is also why the government continues to starve the Information Commissioner of resources—so that it takes the commissioner so long to review a rejected freedom-of-information request that the applicant just gives up.