FOI Documents Reveal OAIC Echoes EFA’s Critique of the Government’s Age Assurance Technology Trial
Newly released documents seen by EFA and obtained by Cam Wilson (a journalist for Crikey and friend of EFA) —read the full Crikey article here — under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that internal assessments by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) align substantially with the early warnings and independent observations made by […]
Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2026 Withdrawn
Written by John Pane, EFA Chair. Following some very spirited debate today in the Senate, EFA is quite happy to announce that the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill has been withdrawn. In respect of Senator Gallagher’s (LAB) comments in the Senate today that “….the intention of the bill was to modernise the FOI process, reduce […]
Albanese Government Poised to Restrict Australia’s Freedom of Information Regime
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) warns that the Albanese government is set to weaken our government’s transparency framework and its accountability by using its numbers to bulldoze the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 (FOIA Bill) through Parliament without amendment when it resumes this week, despite overwhelming and well-reasoned opposition to the Bill. […]
EFA’s 2017 Wish List
As the new year approaches, it’s again time to set out our Wish List and priorities for the year ahead. This list repeats many of the same topics as last year as there has been little movement on many of these issues, partly due to the election interrupting the legislative programme, but also, we’d suggest, […]
Attorney-General must properly resource Information Commission
EFA today calls on the Attorney-General to cease his absurd war of attrition with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Since announcing in 2014 that it intended to abolish the Office, the government has starved the agency of funds and has failed to reappoint two of the three statutory officer positions, despite the reality […]