The Northern Territory government is seeking to further limit public access to the internal correspondence of its ministers.
In legislation proposed in NT parliament by Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby, assistant ministers and their staff would be excluded from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that do not pertain to their portfolio.
In October 2024, the CLP government appointed all of its backbenchers as assistant ministers.
What do we know about the bill?
The Attorney-General and Police Legislation Amendment Bill, if passed, would change four existing territory laws, including the Information Act.
The NT government wants to exempt assistant ministers from FOI disclosures by legislating an informal policy that, for FOI purposes, correspondence between ministers, their assistants and staff is not government information.
In October last year, the government made all CLP backbenchers assistant ministers in various portfolios.
The position is not formally recognised by the NT’s Legislative Assembly.
Ms Boothby told parliament the bill contained “minor changes” to the NT’s Information Act which didn’t warrant standalone legislation.
She told parliament the bill would bring an end to “the era of green lawfare” by legislating against the terms of a single FOI request by the Environment Centre NT — which in 2021 sought access to internal correspondence from the Department for Mining and its then minister Nicole Manison, regarding the reduction of a security bond for the McArthur River Mine.
In July this year, the NT Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether ministers and their senior staff were bound by the same FOI obligations as public sector organisations, to “keep full and accurate records of their activities and operations”.
That matter has progressed through the courts since 2022, when the ECNT appealed the mining department’s denial of their FOI request to the Information Commissioner.
In parliament last week, Ms Boothby said “countless” taxpayer dollars had been spent on legal costs defending the former Labor government’s decision to deny that request.
In a statement, the ECNT said the proposed legislation went significantly beyond the question raised in their legal challenge.
The bill will now be subject to a “consultation period” of 28 days, before the final parliamentary sitting next month.
What are FOI laws and why are they important?
The proposal in the NT comes as the federal government looks to further restrict what information can be accessed via FOI requests.
A coalition of integrity, human rights and media freedom advocates have slammed the federal government’s proposal as a “grave integrity failure”.
“Freedom of Information is a critical feature of any democracy, giving effect to the public’s fundamental right to know and enabling the transparency that makes accountability possible,” The Centre for Public Integrity said in a statement.
Governments typically communicate with the media via carefully worded press releases, scripted press conferences and lengthy public reports.
Media requests for specific information that could contradict party-political lines are frequently ignored or massaged to suit the party narrative.
One of the few avenues available to journalists and the public to access that information is through FOI requests, governed by laws specific to each Commonwealth, states and territories.
For a fee, anyone can request specific documents or information known to have been shared internally within government departments or public bodies within a specific timeframe.
Public organisations and department — including the ABC — are obliged to share that information, but can decline requests or retract information for various reasons, including where it contains personal information or matters that could compromise national security.
In the NT this year alone, the ABC has reported a number of stories from FOI requests, including:
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