The Australian Tax Office has banned freedom of information requests from a website designed to improve the public's access to government.
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The Right to Know website, run by the charity OpenAustralia Foundation, aims to simplify the FOI process by providing advice and explanations.
More than 2000 requests have been archived online since November 2012. Many requests lodged with the ATO have related to pay negotiations and the remuneration of senior staff.
In a statement, the foundation said the ATO claimed the request was abusive to staff. A take-down notice was issued by the ATO but the request remains online.
An OpenAustralia Foundation spokesman said he was "genuinely baffled" by the ATO's decision given it had cooperated with with the website for four years.
"We've previously been asked to redact the names of ATO staff due to a processing error made by the ATO which put their staff at risk," he said.
"We responded within an hour and agreed to take down the material, giving the ATO time to supply correctly redacted documents a few days later.
"In this case we have not been asked to redact names. Instead we were asked to remove a request by a member of the public for an internal review into the decision about their FOI request."
The initial request, submitted by Patrick Conheady, called for a list of IT security guidelines, standards and instructions within the ATO.
In a letter, Mr Conheady said it was "appalling [the ATO official] made the decision without consulting me or affording me the natural justice or even simple decency of a hearing first".
"You could have picked up the phone and spoken to me, and I could have told you that your proposed response was wrong and inadequate," he said.
An ATO spokesman said the decision was not prompted by a singular case, but concerns about the management of the website.
"We are particularly concerned with the names of staff processing the FOI request being published on the website," an ATO spokesperson said.
"We also have concerns that the website takes no responsibility for supervising posts or removing unacceptable material, and the ATO will not be exposing staff to this risk."
The ATO decision comes after Australia's most senior public servants called for freedom of information laws to be amended to conceal sensitive advice to ministers from public scrutiny.
"The FOI act does not afford sufficient protection to public servants," Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson said.
His comments come after a report by former PM&C secretary Peter Shergold, which found public servants deliberately toned down their advice to ministers, which led to major policy failures.
