Administrative Law: Evaluating the Freedom of Information Act 1982

This essay analyzes the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), examining its role in promoting government transparency and accountability. It explores the Act's objectives, successes, and challenges, including the balance between transparency and government effectiveness. The paper discusses legal and practical factors, such as the development of freedom of information legislation in response to government secrecy and the establishment of legal processes for accessing government-held information. It highlights the importance of striking a balance between transparency and efficiency, considering the potential downsides of excessive disclosure. The essay also addresses the role of the Act in balancing various interests, including those related to public interest and confidentiality, and concludes by summarizing the key points discussed.

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

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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.

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two areas that needs to be focused with which help in creating a careful balance and such would
be effectiveness and transparency. The wrong kind of transparency would be considered to
disrupt the organizational functioning and the overexposure relating to the process of the policy
making would be likely having the result relating to real-policy making shifts that would be
backwards into that of the secret that is confined in and such would be with the several proposals
that would be less subject to any kind of difficulty. This would help in creating an effective
decision-making process with less number of accountability7.
The freedom of legislation would also be considered to be acting as a balancing act as the
FOI is acting as a tool which would be encouraging transparency. The freedom of the
information laws would be be appropriate to the category of the regulations and laws, which
would contribute to the objective that would be relating to transparency and such, would be
contradicted with or contrasted with the various regulations that would operate in order to detract
from the transparency8. However, there has been a large part in the Act which is focused on or
concerned with the establishing exceptions along with the exclusions or exemptions from the
rights which are general in order to access the information and such would be a better approach
for the FOI legislation as it would help in becoming a tool for accomplishing the balance
between the revelation of too much information or too diminutive information. On one hand, it is
considered to include overall goals or objectives of the legislation and such can be broadly
described as the improvement or enhancement of the accountability of policy along with the
decision-making and it would also help in encouraging the public participation that would be a
7 Henninger, Maureen. "Reforms to counter a culture of secrecy: Open government in Australia." Government
Information Quarterly 35.3 (2018): 398-407.
8 Lidberg, Johan. "Information access evolution: Assessing freedom of information reforms in
Australia." Australian Journalism Review 38.1 (2016): 73.

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part of the democratic process. Whereas in comparison to such, the recognition which is
considered to be expressed in the form of exclusions or exemptions to that of the general right in
order to right to use information then such right would not be considered to be absolute as such
would be restricted by any other public interest concerns. These opposing interests were
considered to be have a balance between those requests for the information9. It can be understood
from the Harris v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [1983] FCA 25110. The problems or the
difficulties are considered to be arise if such is in connection with how a decision maker would
try to decide some individual cases and whether such interest in the confidentiality would
outweigh the interest relating to the disclosure. There has been a question in particular that would
be in relation to the genuine role of the executive government in trying to balance the public
interest regarding the individual cases. The amendments which happened in the year 2010
attempted to handle such problem or difficulty relating to public interest in the decision making
process and it is concluded that such tries to compromise the capability and capacity of the
decision maker in order to balance such public interest considerations that would be in play and
which are also likely to lead to the behaviour of the prevention of disclosure which would reduce
rather than increasing the rate of accountability11.
The government accountability is considered to be a part of the participative democracy
and through the openness and the transparency such would help in accessing the right to know
the operations relating to the movements of the government. This also helps in facilitating an
9 McDonagh, Maeve, and Moira Rosalind Petrides Paterson. "FOI in the Balance: The Function and Role of the
Public Interest." Public Law: the Constitutional and Administrative Law of the Commonwealth 2017.January (2017):
81.
10 Harris v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [1983] FCA 251
11 Pozen, David E., and Michael Schudson, eds. Troubling transparency: the history and future of freedom of
information. Columbia University Press, 2018.

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open society that would be having a free flow of the information which would help in enabling
the citizens to evaluate and critically assess the consequences of various implementation of the
policies relating to the government. These policies can be considered to be abandoned or along
with such modified with respect to the amount of critical scrutiny. This principle of openness
would help the citizen’s access the public records along with other government information and
such would provide as a proof or an evidence of the governance in the democratic process.
Although the public record is not considered to be automatically made public or would not also
be made available to the public openly and the citizens would have to assume certain aspect of
decision-making and this would be closed to the public scrutiny. This particular kind of conflict
is considered to be a continuous conflict that would prevail and exist between the citizens and the
state and along with such within the state itself which would be represented by various elected
officials along with the bureaucracy. This would help in comprehending the things or the
information that needs to be disclosed and the information that does not need to be disclosed or
are not required to be disclosed. Thus, there would remain a struggle for bureaucracy along with
the government in practicality. This would open a middle ground for them to settle down on
unless they would not want to settle due to various compelling reasons as such would be helping
to increase the superiority12.
Freedom of Information legislation is considered to have one mechanism through which
the government would have to acknowledge the principles and give access to the public record if
such would be reasonable but such would be considered to be encouraging and conducive to the
accountability along with various good policy decisions and the economic development.
12 McDonagh, Maeve, and Moira Rosalind Petrides Paterson. "FOI in the Balance: The Function and Role of the
Public Interest." Public Law: the Constitutional and Administrative Law of the Commonwealth 2017.January (2017):
81.

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Transparency and openness are considered to be significant factors that help in creating an
effective government. This helped in creating a place for the citizens to find out the operations of
the government and it would also help the public to know about the governance and its effective
decision-making process. This particular Act has provided the citizens with the right to request
some kind of recorded information, which would be held by the various public authorities, and
this right would be applicable to all kinds of information that would be held and such would not
be restricted or limited to the public body’s official documents. Thus, it can be understood that
such an Act would be significant, as it would help in keeping the government accountable as
well as transparent13.
Conclusion
Therefore, Freedom of Information Act helps in balancing and maintaining transparency
and accountability of the government to the public in order to keep a check on the wide range of
misconduct, which might be carried out by the government, which would pose some kind of
threats to the public’s health and safety. The Act has also gone through reformative measures and
such changes or amendments were largely targeted in reducing and decreasing the costs.
Therefore, this legislation was considered to access the public documents and access the
operations of the government in order to control and keep a check on the Government and
prevent them from any kind of misconduct, which would in turn increase the accountability of
the government and try to enhance transparency. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the public
at large to be able to understand the functioning of the government and try to be more actively
participatory in the decision-making process. Thus, this paper discusses the FOI Act and how
13 Pozen, David E., and Michael Schudson, eds. Troubling transparency: the history and future of freedom of
information. Columbia University Press, 2018.

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such helped in balancing the transparency and accountability with respect to the legal and
practical factors.

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Bibliography
Allars, Margaret. "Freedom of Information Legislation in Australia: A Review." Revue
Internationale des Gouvernements Ouverts 5 (2017): 1-12.
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.
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.
Fink, Katherine. "Opening the government’s black boxes: freedom of information and
algorithmic accountability." Information, Communication & Society 21.10 (2018): 1453-1471.
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).
Harris v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [1983] FCA 251.
Henninger, Maureen. "Reforms to counter a culture of secrecy: Open government in
Australia." Government Information Quarterly 35.3 (2018): 398-407.
Lidberg, Johan. "Information access evolution: Assessing freedom of information reforms in
Australia." Australian Journalism Review 38.1 (2016): 73.
McDonagh, Maeve, and Moira Rosalind Petrides Paterson. "FOI in the Balance: The Function
and Role of the Public Interest." Public Law: the Constitutional and Administrative Law of the
Commonwealth 2017.January (2017): 81.

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Pozen, David E., and Michael Schudson, eds. Troubling transparency: the history and future of
freedom of information. Columbia University Press, 2018.