Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Integrity and Oversight Committee

Inquiry into the Operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic)

Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (10:22): I am very happy to stand today to talk about the Integrity and Oversight Committee’s report on the inquiry into the Freedom of Information Act 1982, tabled in this place last month. When the original Victorian act was legislated over 40 years ago it was considered to be state of the art and certainly the leading freedom of information act in Australia, and I believe it worked very well for many years. However, it is obvious to all of us in this place that the advances over the last two decades or so in technology, internet, social media and more recently artificial intelligence have completely changed the landscape and nature of how we access information and what access to information we do have. By that I mean we have such great access to information nowadays, more so than ever before, yet getting that information through the current Freedom of Information Act is incredibly difficult, frustrating, expensive and often unsuccessful. So it was no surprise during the course of the committee’s hearings into the Freedom of Information Act that we heard loud and clear from almost everybody that spoke at the inquiry that the act was no longer fit for purpose, was broken and way beyond repair.

The current act requires people who want access to information to pull it out of the system. This can be really problematic if you are not quite sure exactly what information you are seeking. It is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and it maintains the onus on the person seeking the information to ask the right questions, not those that hold it. Considering there were more than 48,000 FOI requests in Victoria last year and the fact that two-thirds of those requests, over 32,000, are asking for information about themselves, it was very clearly stated by all of those that presented at the inquiry that we needed an easier, more efficient and cost-effective way for people to access their own information. The new system that this report supports is a pushed system, meaning that information is pushed out into the public realm and is easily and readily accessible to those who wish to seek it. The report does acknowledge that some information may not be able to be pushed out so freely, so there will be four levels of release: a mandatory proactive release, an additional proactive release, an informal release and a formal release. Overarching this, it is recommended that a new three-part test is to apply to almost all exemptions to disclosure of information underpinned by a presumption of favouring disclosure of information. This is one of the things I like best that has come out of this inquiry, and that is that the new act will be underpinned by a presumption of favouring disclosure of information. To me that is the key starting point for the new act. Additional to that, I am very excited by the idea of changing the name of this act from ‘freedom of information’ – although I note some people in the inquiry called it ‘freedom from information’ because they found it so frustrating to actually get information, oftentimes their own information – to ‘right to information’.

The fact is we all have a right to our own information. I am very encouraged that the third-generation push model will be underpinned by the presumption of disclosure, because people have the right to information. With these two points underpinning the starting point to writing the third-generation push model, I am very confident we will get an effective and valuable new right to information act that not only takes into account where we stand today with technology but will also be an act that takes into account the constant and evolving changes to technology, such as artificial intelligence, over the coming decade.

I would like to thank the 65 organisations that came to the inquiry and gave evidence. They all certainly put a lot of effort into their submissions, and it was greatly appreciated. I thank the many organisations and individuals who wrote submissions to the inquiry. I would also like to thank the other members of the Integrity and Oversight Committee for the work they did on this inquiry. I especially would like to thank the secretariat for the amazing and very in-depth work they all did on this report – quite simply, they were amazing. There are 101 recommendations in this report. I hope they are all accepted. I look forward to a new right to information act. I commend this report to the house.