Over 800 FOI reviews drag on for more than a year due to under-resourcing

In March, the Albanese Government pulled their “friendless” crackdown on freedom of information (FOI) rights. While it is comforting that things will not get even worse, change is needed to address the culture of secrecy and denial that successive governments have allowed to fester in the public service.

The latest example of the broken FOI system is the hundreds of Australians who are waiting over a year for their FOI requests to be properly reviewed.

A FOI request from former senator Rex Patrick has revealed the extent of the problem.

If someone is unhappy with how their freedom of information request has been handled by a government agency or minister, they can request a review by the Freedom of Information Commissioner.

These reviews often confirm that the agency or minister has kept back information that the public is legally entitled to know.

But the Freedom of Information Commissioner is badly under-resourced and has been for years. The average review takes several months to complete, and many drag on for multiple years.

Patrick’s FOI request reveals that, in 2025, the Commissioner had 807 reviews “on hand” for over 12 months. Most of those had been running for two or more years, including 145 that had taken three or more years to date.

While this is an improvement on 2023’s record high of 1,216, it is ten times as many as in 2018.

By blocking public access to information, a delay can stop what would otherwise be a national scandal from coming to light. Starving regulators of resources is part of this deliberate delaying strategy.

Instead of fixing the broken FOI system, however, the Albanese Government tried to increase government secrecy and restrict freedom of information even further. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apparently even offered the Liberal–National Opposition more staff to induce them to support the FOI crackdown.

The Australian public has a right to know what the government is doing in their name and with their money. To do this properly, the Freedom of Information Commissioner should have the staff and funding to enforce FOI access rights quickly and fairly.