Access to government information is crucial to democratic practice. It underpins the core Australian constitutional tenets of representative and responsible government. One of the most powerful tools for accessing government information is the Senate’s ability to order the production of documents. This mechanism has, however, buckled in recent years under abuse of successive governments. Senate production compliance rates have fallen from 92 per cent in 1993-96, to 20 per cent for the current Parliament. The use of potentially bogus unilateral ‘public interest immunity’ claims to protect government documents from production in the Senate has rapidly increased under the current Albanese Government – averaging almost one claim per week compared to one every three weeks under the Morrison Government.

Clearly, this mechanism purporting to promote transparency and accountability has failed, and substantial reform is required. Accordingly, the Centre for Public Integrity recommends the establishment of an Independent Transparency Monitor to promote access to information by providing a disincentive to secrecy and an independent review mechanism for Parliament’s requests for documents.