Administrative Law | Assignment

Running head: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW1
Question 1
Introduction
The Freedom of Information Act 19821 is considered to be an Australian Commonwealth
Freedom of Information legislation which provides the members with various public rights that
would help them to access the official documents of the Government along with its agencies. The
members have the authority to access certain rights, which are public, which is inclusive of the
rights relating to documents in connection with the operation of government and its Ministers of
Agencies. However, there are certain documents, which are excluded, and such are in connection
with the documents, which are detailing the Cabinet deliberations or the decisions, or any other
documents, which would be disclosing the trade secrets or any other documents that would be
damaging the security or the defence or any other international relations among others.
Therefore, it considered to be a success because it permits or allows the general public to those
particular data or information which are held by the national governments2.
This paper would discuss the success of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and
in addition to such it would also try to discuss its aim and objectives and the role it plays on
balancing the government transparency along with government effectiveness. Furthermore, it
would also discuss the legal and practical factors relating to such. In conclusion, it would
summarize the points that have been discussed in the paper.
1 Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).
2 Allars, Margaret. "Freedom of Information Legislation in Australia: A Review." Revue Internationale des
Gouvernements Ouverts 5 (2017): 1-12.

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Discussion
The development and occurrence of freedom of the information legislation was
considered to be a significant factor as it was in response to the growing displeasure about the
secrecy that were being carried out by the government regarding the policy enlargement and the
decision making. They also established a legal process relating to right-to-know where the
requests which had been made for any government held information would be received in a
manner which would be free or would have minimum cost that would be barring the standard
exceptions. It is also considered to be referred to as some kind of open records or any other
sunshine laws where the governments are considered to be typically bound by the duty, which
would be made in order to publish as well as promote openness. In addition to such, several
countries would have several constitutional guarantees which would be for the right of access to
the information but these were considered to be usually unused if the support for the particular
legislation does not exist3.
The new age relating to transparency regarding the statute took place after a lot of
reforms to that of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)4 which helped in shifting the
control government and shifting such information away to increase some kind of accountability
and transparency. The conclusive certificates for instance are considered to be abolished in the
year 2009 and there have been numerous amounts of exceptions regarding such that includes the
exemption relating to deliberative documents which have been made conditional on the account
of single public interest test which happened in the year 2010. Nevertheless, transparency has not
been considered to be an absolute and such cannot be completed or ended in itself as the value
3 Bannister, Judith Kaye. "Accountability or participation? Disentangling the rationales for FOI access to
deliberative material." Disentangling the Rationales for FOI Access to Deliberative Material (December 1, 2015).
IRevue Internationale des Gouvernements Ouverts (2015): 327-344.
4 Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).

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would only be so far which would enhance or improve the accountability. In spite of such a
proper balance needs to be struck between the transparency along with efficiency and
effectiveness5.
Transparency was considered to not come naturally to the governments even if there have
been various documents of disclosure allowed through law. It may be due to conflicting cultural
as well as organizational factors which are considered to be at work. Such an apparent tendency
to maintain secrecy was considered to criticized widely as such was in relation to the method of
the present Government in Australia on the several issues relating to the border protection along
with foreign aid and the disassembling of the Office which would be in relation to the Australian
Information Commissioner. This particular tendency would be towards the secrecy that would
always be endured in mind while discussing about the measures relating to accountability
inclusive of the transparency. However, it has also been stated that on the other hand, it was
worth bearing in mind that too much transparency would also be a downside and such have been
found to be the most appropriate balance which would be between too little disclosure along with
too much. Transparency was also considered to be wielded and flourished as a value that would
be in its own right6.
It can also be stated that there is a necessity or an emergence for a some nuanced and
instrumental method or approach in order to balance the transparency as such would only be
considered to be valuable if it is actually contributing towards any kind of essential decision-
making and along with such the accountability. In order to create transparency there needs to be
5 Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna, Jonathan James, and Sunčica Vujić. "Freedom of Information (FOI) as a data collection
tool for social scientists." PloS one 15.2 (2020): e0228392.
6 Fink, Katherine. "Opening the government’s black boxes: freedom of information and algorithmic
accountability." Information, Communication & Society 21.10 (2018): 1453-1471.