Less than a third of Commonwealth freedom of information access-refusal cases reviewed in 2020 by the Information Commissioner have had their original exemptions upheld.
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The latest figures come after the government agreed to improve the training and consistency of FOI decision-makers.
Reviews of FOI decisions through the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner have a substantial backlog that includes cases up to two years old. Most of these cases are resolved by assisting the parties to reach an agreement. The minority that go on to be reviewed by Commissioner Angelene Falk frequently concern disagreements over the use of exemptions.
Just 29 per cent of these cases involving access refusal had the original agency decision affirmed in the last 12 months.
When the commissioner reversed an agency's decision, the most common reasons were its misuse of exemptions for deliberative material, operational and business processes.
Among service-delivery agencies, such as Services Australia, Home Affairs and the ATO, overturned decisions were more likely to include claims that it was not practical to comply with the request for documents about the applicants.
The OAIC was most likely to affirm an agency's decision in cases where the applicant felt the agency had not taken reasonable steps to find all relevant documents.
The commissioner sided with agencies in 83 per cent of cases where it was a third party objecting to the release of documents on privacy or commercial-interest grounds.
Only two bids were made to declare an individual a vexatious applicant for misusing FOI processes through the year, each made by Services Australia. Both were upheld.
The latest figures continue a trend identified in a recent press freedom parliamentary inquiry, which heard poor decision-making, misuse of exemptions and taking a "go-slow" approach to processing applications were used to sidestep the objectives of the Freedom of Information Act.
In October, the government agreed to a recommendation from that inquiry to review and prioritise a uniform FOI culture across departments, to ensure the requirements and exemptions allowed under the law are consistently applied.
The strained OAIC has calculated it will be able to review 829 cases per year based on current resourcing, but review applications are projected to rise to 1622 cases in 2022-23. The backlog includes hundreds of cases older than one year, and 59 matters that have been waiting more than two years to be finalised.
Senator Kimberley Kitching has nine active reviews outstanding after being refused by the Department of the Prime Minister or Prime Minister's Office between 80 and 141 days after the prescribed processing time of 30 days. The shadow assistant minister for government accountability said recent events should remind us not to take democratic principles for granted.
"There's a straight line between a government keeping secrets from the people they serve and an erosion of faith in the democratic system," Senator Kitching told The Canberra Times.
"One of the hallmarks of democracy is its transparency," she said.
"Scott Morrison's government has treated the freedom of information request process with contempt - there are more refusals, more redactions, higher costs, and estimated charges for requests that don't seem to be based in logic; and when they do deign to answer, there are significant delays in receiving answers that are well outside the time periods mandated by the act."
Russell Wilson, a financial crime and anti-money-laundering expert who sits on the board of Transparency International Australia, said access to information in a timely manner was an important aspect of accountability.
"Freedom of information is an essential tool to engage and empower citizens to demand accountability from governments and fight corruption," Wilson said.
"A well-functioning FOI process can help drive a shift from a culture of secrecy to that of open government, in which everyone has a stake."
FOI applications received by agencies continued a steady climb again in 2019-20, now more than 40,000 across all Commonwealth agencies. However fewer requests were finalised than previous years. Full access was granted in 47 per cent of finalised cases, 38 percent of requests were given partial access and 15 per cent were refused.
Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
