The Federal Government spends more on shredders than FOI training

In the five years from 2020 to 2024, the Federal Government spent at least $2.3 million on shredders. That’s according to AusTender, the centralised database of Australian Government contracts. Among the 54 contracts were contracts for office machines with supplier Kobra Shredders Australia and shredders purchased from other companies. 

By contrast, government agencies reported spending just $1.3 million on FOI training in the financial years ending between 2020 and 2024. The FOI system has become much more expensive, rising from $64 million in 2020 to $86 million in 2024, but in 2024 just 0.5% of the total cost of the FOI system was for training.  

The imbalance between spending on shredders and the FOI training budget was spotted by Phil Dorling in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2012.  

There are some similarities between Labor Governments then and now. For one, Anthony Albanese is one constant, then the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, and now the Prime Minister.  

But there are stark differences. Labor in 2012 made sweeping reforms to the FOI system that underscored the role of public servants as facilitating the open and transparent release of information. Today, however, the Labor Government seemingly wants to do the opposite, their proposed bill would make it harder and more expensive for Australians to get information from the government. 

One of the Albanese Government’s proposed changes to FOI would allow them to charge fees for non-personal freedom of information requests. This would create a potentially significant cost barrier for those making an FOI, but raise very little money. Assuming they were set at $50, fees would have raised $480,000 in 2024 – about what the government spent on shredders that year. 

There is wide agreement that the FOI system is broken – each FOI request now costs an average of $4,000 to process, compared to just $1,200 in 2007. It now takes over 50 hours for each FOI determined, up from 13 hours in 2007. 

But the problems aren’t caused by ‘artificial intelligence bots’ or ‘foreign spies’, as the Albanese Government has implied. Instead, they are caused by a culture of secrecy that pervades the Government. To change that culture, the Government could set an example by investing more in training public servants on how to proactively disclose information to reduce the need for FOI requests at all. 

If this Government truly wants to fix the FOI system, they could start by getting their own house in order.