Declassified Australia can reveal that the Defence Department has started obscuring munitions-specific export data for Israel that it was previously willing to release. This occurred in its response to the most recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Source: Secrets of the Weapons Trade
As for the financial disclosure, if a multitude of on-line shopping websites can tell you within minutes that Anthony A of Marrickville purchased a “Comfy” camping chair – complete with image and price for your fear or missing out to trigger and get the identical product – the software exists for the $20,000 donation to any political party to be given similar publicity. It can’t be that hard.
A ban on lies in political advertising is popular according to a survey by The Australia Institute. All we need is the Parliament to work together and make it happen.
Source: Lies, damn lies and politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Transparency when do we want it NOW!!
It can’t be correct that a government-of-the-day can, by defunding its FOI apparatus, steals away a right given to us by Parliament to have timely access to information useful for scrutinising that very same government. Rex Patrick is taking his FOI fight to the Full Bench of the Federal Court.
Source: Appeal for Transparency: Rex Patrick takes secrecy fight to the Full Federal Court – Michael West
Australia remains a Colony
Five decades on, some parliamentarians have called for a formal acknowledgement of Canberra’s role in the destruction of a democracy that led to the death and torture of tens of thousands by a brutal military junta. The Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Peace, Senator Jordon Steele-John, stated his party’s position: “50 years on we know Australia was involved, as it worked to support the US national interest. To this day, Australia’s secretive and unaccountable national security apparatus has blocked the release of information and has denied closure for thousands of Chilean-Australians.”
In calling for an apology to the Chilean people, the Greens are also demanding the declassification of any relevant ASIS and ASIO documents that would show support for Pinochet, including implementing “oversight and reform to our intelligence agencies to ensure that this can never happen again.”
Source: Overthrowing Allende: Australia’s special role in destroying a democracy – Pearls and Irritations
Far too often, government departments and its agencies deny Freedom of Information requests without good reason. It leads to unnecessary delays, costs, and the withholding of information that the public deserves to know. What’s the scam?
Source: Playing chicken to the detriment of democracy and cost to the taxpayer – Michael West
Under FOI, I requested Commissioner Woolcott’s briefing, minutes and talking points associated with the March 8 bureaucratic talk fest. Woolcott, a Coalition appointment (and former staffer to Andrew Peacock and Chief of Staff to Alexander Downer) retires in 4 months, has refused access to the documents he holds, claiming it’s not in the public interest to release them.
Source: Robodebt Cover-Up: documents on repairing Australian Public Service buried – Michael West
Dowling seems to expect Albanese to walk on water, orat least turn it into wine, and do it NOW!! The ALP have hardly in power this century but Dowling raises the chant we so often hear. “When do we want it? We want it now”. There are many faults surfacing but they aren’t all Albanese’s Shane.
Anyway, Rex Patrick of Michael West Media is way ahead of Dowling on the problem of the FOI. He’s taking them to court to try to set a precedent. So much so the head of the FOI has resigned. Dowling is merely climbing on Patricks shoulders and shouting to stay relevant it seems.
Anthony Albanese’s handiwork in abusing FOI laws is about to come under close scrutiny after the Senate voted to hold an Inquiry. Governments are notorious for abusing Freedom of Information laws to hide government corruption from the media and public and the Albanese government has quickly shown they are no exception.
The secretive Future Fund’s chairman Peter Costello might not like it, but Freedom of Information requests are peeling back the lid on the Fund’s weighty overseas investments. Philip Dorling and Rex Patrick report the more controversial ones.
Albanese talks integrity and transparency but walks back on it
The bottom line is Leo Hardiman was forced to quit his well-paid 5-year contract, by constructive dismissal, in less than a year because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government would not give him what he needed to speed up the processing of freedom of information requests and reviews which are used to help keep the government accountable.
Has MWM and Rex Patrick little or nothing to write about blaming the ALP and the recently elected PM Albanese’s government for not having his finger equally attending to every change on their list of promises? Is Albo the head of this government expected to be the stamp licker, bookkeeper and office janitor as well as the Party and Country’s leader? He’s already changed the direction of the country in the eyes of the world and is turning the ship. He may not be Gough but then MWM and Patrick seem to have taken on the cloak of nitpickers for nitpicking sake alone to keep up their image of “we’ll keep the bastards honest”. Whinging isn’t a substitute for criticism just a haggle over the list of minutia priorities.
In my case they’ve told me my request will cost an outrageous $1,344 to process 179 days displayed in weekly view – that is to process 29 pages of diary. I say that’s ‘outrageous’ having personally made more than 300 FOIs request over the past 5 years and never been charged that sort of money, even for far more voluminous requests.
Transparency builds confidence in our political leaders. Attempting to bury or stall an FOI diary request just does the opposite. It promotes the idea that the Prime Minster is disingenuous in his claims that his Government is transparent, and it erodes people trust in him”.
And when the mud starts flying about, some of it inevitably sticks.
First a Morrison government whitewash, next disappearing advice from former Attorney-General Christian Porter. On the trail of government rorts, Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick finds obfuscation at every turn and a broken Freedom of Information regime which attacks the heart of democracy and responsible government.
Source: The dog ate my Cabinet document: Christian Porter’s vanishing rorts advice – Michael West
Israel has assassinated people on foreign soil using fake Australian documents to facilitate their crimes. It has kidnapped people from Australia without any government permission. It has held Australian citizens in jail without informing us of their existence and has simply spied on us as if we were its enemy. It has misused its relationship with Australia in so many ways and we have always turned the other way and allowed them to abuse that relationship,why?
In November 2022, I brought a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the Australian Government to disclose the basis of its non-acceptance of the reports that apartheid exists in Israel. Last week, DFAT rejected the request on the risible basis that to process it would “unreasonably divert the department’s resources.”
Source: Australia’s DFAT blocks FOI request on Israel apartheid status – Pearls and Irritations
Has the government forgotten who employs it? Everyone should get their Freedom of Information requests dealt with in a reasonable time, writes former senator and transparency warrior Rex Patrick.
Source: Come on Mr Attorney-General, transparency is more than a cry for opposition benches – Michael West
Information Commission, Angelene Falk, will argue in the Federal Court that she can take forever to handle FOI complaints. Rex Patrick reports
Independent senator Rex Patrick has condemned the prime minister’s department for claiming it cannot find a key letter from Christian Porter to Scott Morrison about the sports rorts affair, a position seemingly at odds with the attorney general’s office, which has fought to keep the document secret. Patrick has been fighting an almost two-year freedom of information battle with the attorney general’s office, seeking access to a letter from the then attorney general to the prime minister about the administration of the community sport infrastructure program. The attorney general’s letter is thought to provide legal advice to the prime minister on a particular aspect of the damning auditor general’s report that found the government handed out $100m in sport grants in order to favour “targeted” Coalition seats at the May 2019 election. Parliament House, Canberra Information watchdog demands change after two government departments break FoI laws within a month Read more The request was rejected on cabinet confidentiality and legal privilege grounds, something Patrick disputed and took to the watchdog, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. While he was waiting for a
FOI Secrecy and News Corp’s Sensationalism. LNP and Scott Morrison’s “On the Water Matters Multiply” (ODT)
“The idea that the state department would say it’s going to take them three years to look at a few pages is completely extraordinary,” Behm said.
AdvertisementHe said it defied the purpose of FoI laws, which was to inform the public and ensure governments were transparent
Document behind News Corp’s ‘bombshell dossier’ on China coronavirus may be released … in 2023 | Australia news | The Guardian
and
‘Make no mistake: we unlawfully invaded a sovereign state.’ ~ Kellie Tranter
Source: EXCLUSIVE: FOI documents expose Australia’s unlawful invasion of Syria
olddogthoughts 
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