Federal Attorney General on Freedom of Information laws

Federal Attorney General, Phillip Ruddock, has dismissed criticisms by Geoffrey Robertson QC of the state of free speech in Australia, and his call for some statutory protection of rights. According to the article, the Attorney General also said that Australia's freedom of information laws ensured all appropriate material is available to the public.

As University of Tasmania academic Rick Snell points out in a recently published article "Information Flows - the real art of information management and freedom of information" the critics of the FOI laws include some independent heavy hitters (page 61):

"A series of key institutional players - the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Auditor General and a Senate Committee - have all carefully pinpointed problems in access processing and variable compliance to the FOI Act over a ten year period".

The Australian Law Reform Commission Report referred to was completed in December 1995. The Federal Government has never formally responded to its 106 recommendations although the Attorney General makes it clear the Government is satisfied with the status quo.