The Albanese government is being accused of using the threat of crippling legal bills to discourage Australians from seeking access to public documents, prompting a crossbench push to change the law.
Wed 14 Oct 2026 09.30 AEDT
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie speaks to journalists at a press conference at Parliament House. Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Political commentators say that the change in leader will make things harder for the Albanese Government. But did the Greens’ more forceful negating strategy under Bandt hold back Labor’s agenda? If not, it is unclear why Shoebridge would be any different.
Australia has a new centre. If any policy finds itself between Labor and One Nation, it’s now considered “the middle ground”. That should be alarming for a number of reasons, not least because it doesn’t consider what is good policy, just what is allegedly in-between what the mainstream media considers the two extremes.
The Albanese government is being accused of using the threat of crippling legal bills to discourage Australians from seeking access to public documents, prompting a crossbench push to change the law.
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie will introduce a bill this week requiring the government to cover reasonable legal costs if it challenges a freedom of information (FOI) victory in the Federal Court.
“Australians know the term ‘coercive control’ – what the federal Labor government is doing is financial coercion,” said Senator Lambie.
“The Albanese government’s latest attack on our FOI laws must be stopped – my bill would do that.”
The move follows the federal government’s escalation of an AUKUS transparency dispute to the Federal Court in July.
Rex Patrick, a transparency campaigner and a former South Australian senator, is seeking details about how the government would select a site to store AUKUS nuclear waste.
He won an appeal under FOI rules in May, but the Department of Industry, Science and Resources is now seeking to have the decision overturned in the Federal Court.
The department also sought an order requiring Mr Patrick to pay the Commonwealth’s legal costs if he is unsuccessful — a bill that was initially estimated could reach $150,000 or more.
Mr Patrick said public and political pressure had forced the government to partially back down, offering to cap his potential liability for legal costs at $20,000 after he applied to the court for a five-cent protective costs order.
“Whilst I’m the first victim of the Government’s new secrecy strategy, this is not about me. I’m big enough and ugly enough to look after myself,” said Mr Patrick.
“The important thing here is that we put an end to this new anti-transparency tactic so that everyday Australians can use FOI to participate in democracy and scrutinise their government, without having to worry about losing their house.”
Anthony Albanese made transparency a central theme of his 2022 federal election campaign, promising a more open and accountable government than Scott Morrison’s “cult of secrecy”.
However, Victorian teal MP Dr Monique Ryan said his government had failed to live up to those promises.
“The Albanese Government is the most secretive federal government in decades,” she said.
“It protects lobbyists, keeps ministerial diaries closed, and has repeatedly made FoI requests more challenging and more expensive.”
Labor’s proposed reforms were effectively abandoned in March 2026 after it became clear the bill would lack support in the Senate.
But Senator Lambie said the government’s “war” had continued, with citizens now facing the threat of legal bills running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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“Restricting access through bullying tactics goes against the spirit of our laws and has a chilling effect on Australians seeking to bring transparency to government,” said ACT independent Senator David Pocock.
Politicians aren’t the only ones raising serious concerns.
Legal experts, journalists and advocacy groups have also added their voices to the growing chorus.
“Earlier this year, the Coalition, Greens and crossbench came together to reject a more secretive government and weaker freedom of information laws,” said Bill Browne, director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy and Accountability Program
“An FOI applicant shouldn’t have to go to court to get the government information that they are entitled to. Senator Lambie’s private member’s bill is a solution to a problem that should never have emerged: that an FOI applicant can be bankrupted by the government for having their day in court.”
Senior counsel Geoffrey Watson accused the government of using legal costs to intimidate people seeking information.
“This Government seems intent on shutting citizens out of the courts with the threat of punishing costs orders – a typical litigation tactic of the well-heeled bully,” he said.
The Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom warned the case could have serious consequences for newsrooms.
“In a world of diminishing transparency, FOI remains one of the few tools that journalists have to get real, unfiltered information from the government,” said executive director Peter Greste.
“The decision to go to the Federal Court to seek costs in an FOI case risks setting a precedent that could break some newsrooms who are only acting in the public interest.”
An Auditor-General’s report into FOI administration, released in May 2026, found that across three government departments, almost 80 per cent of FOI requests were either partially or fully denied and that decision-making was “not consistently transparent, accountable and pro-disclosure”.
When applicants challenged decisions, 54 per cent resulted in further information being released.
“Freedom of Information only works if ordinary Australians can actually use it. Nobody should face financial ruin just for seeking access to government documents,” said independent MP Dr Helen Haines.
“The Albanese government should be restoring reduced trust in politics by increasing transparency, instead it is going the other way,” added Community Strong MP Allegra Spender.
Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie described transparency as the “cornerstone of our democracy”.
“The imbalance of power and resources between an individual and a government are so vast, we should be seeking to close that gulf, not widen it,” he said.
