The People vs Robodebt review: ‘must watch’ is an understatement
The People vs Robodebt tells the story of one of the biggest political scandals in recent Australian history.
By Clancy Moore
September 24 2025
On September 28 each year, the world marks International Day for Universal Access to Information, a reminder that the right to know is fundamental to democracy, accountability, and justice.
This year, the date coincides with a pivotal moment for Australia - with the announcement of new freedom-of-information laws by the Attorney-General, earlier this month.
On the surface, this should have been a moment to celebrate.
The Albanese government has a strong legislative record on transparency and combating corruption: it established the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), replaced the plagued Administrative Appeals Tribunal, recommitted to the Open Government Partnership, and introduced stronger foreign bribery laws.
But the proposed FOI reforms risk moving Australia backwards.
Instead of delivering the stronger, fairer and more accessible FOI system that reviews and inquiries have repeatedly called for, the bill may make it harder for the public to scrutinise government and easier for secrecy to prevail.
Australia's FOI system is meant to be a cornerstone of democratic accountability - a tool that allows ordinary citizens, journalists, and civil society to access government information or decisions that affect them and the public interest.
Over four decades, FOI has uncovered stories that cut to the heart of accountability in government.
In 2013, for example, documents revealed through FOI showed that the Rudd government bypassed its own advertising rules to fast-track the infamous "By boat, no visa" campaign. The Department of Immigration approved the campaign in less than a day, sidestepping safeguards designed to protect the public interest.
More recently, FOI requests revealed why former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly sought treasury and home affairs portfolios in 2021.
Few scandals, however, better illustrate the high cost of government secrecy than robodebt.
This illegal debt-recovery scheme saw more than 400,000 Australians wrongly pursued for money they did not owe. Some people were threatened with legal action; some tragically took their own lives under the stress.
This month, the government acknowledged this harm, reaching a $475 million settlement with victims.
But perhaps just as disturbing as the scheme itself was the cover-up that allowed it to continue. FOI requests were denied on grounds of cabinet confidentiality, documents were withheld, and scrutiny was resisted at every turn.
The very tools designed to let the public shine a light on government decisions were blunted by a culture of defensiveness rather than accountability.
Robodebt is not an isolated case. For years, Australia's FOI system has been in decline. Access to documents has become slower, more opaque, and more frequently denied.
In 2011-12, 59 per cent of FOI requests were granted in full. By 2023-24, that figure had plummeted to just 25 per cent, with outright refusals rising from 12 to 23 per cent in the same period.
Average processing times for OAIC reviews have ballooned from six months in 2016-17 to over 15 months today. And in 2020, three Commonwealth departments were found to have broken FOI laws.
This is a broken system. It has been examined and criticised in multiple reviews, most notably the 2023 Senate inquiry and the robodebt royal commission.
Both exposed serious flaws and called for stronger transparency to rebuild public trust.
In fact, the need to modernise the FOI Act was recognised as far back as Australia's first Open Government National Action Plan in 2016.
Yet rather than listening to these findings, the proposed bill risks doubling down on the very problems it should be fixing.
The bill targets anonymous and pseudonymous requests, with the government arguing this is needed to stop vexatious or duplicate requests. But banning anonymity strips away vital protections for whistleblowers, vulnerable people, and anyone fearful of retaliation.
The bill also introduces a mandatory fee of $30 to $50 to lodge FOI requests for organisations such as civil society groups and the media.
Requests by individuals for their own information would remain free, which is welcome.
But the new fee would undoubtedly deter journalists, researchers and non-profits - many already stretched thin - from pursuing the very investigations that hold power to account.
Spam and duplicate requests are real challenges, but there are straightforward, low-cost technology solutions: image captchas, two-factor authentication, or secure email and phone verification.
These are common in banking and government service portals. They could weed out bots without punishing genuine users or stripping away anonymity.
Not all parts of the bill are problematic. There are commonsense measures to streamline timeframes, prevent concurrent reviews, and tidy up extension processes. There are also reforms to improve FOI complaint handling by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. These tweaks may help unclog the system's arteries.
But the bill does not tackle the deeper cultural and structural issues that make Australia's FOI system one of secrecy and delay.
What's needed is a culture of proactive disclosure. Other jurisdictions show what's possible: ministers' diaries are published in NSW, Victoria and Queensland; in New Zealand, cabinet submissions and decisions are routinely made public.
These measures reduce the need for FOI requests and build trust through openness.
At the very moment when trust in institutions is fraying, the government risks making it harder and riskier to ask questions. FOI is not a privilege for the few; it is a right for all Australians.
Making it harder, slower and more costly undermines the principles of transparency and accountability on which democracy depends.
The Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee will soon review the bill. Civil society, journalists and citizens will have their say.
The hope is that Parliament will seize this opportunity to fix the system properly.
- Clancy Moore is the chief executive
- officer of Transparency
- International Australia.
