A central argument for the government's proposed widening of exemptions under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is the claim that the current provisions constrain the provision of "frank and fearless advice" by the public service.

In its submission to the Senate finance and public administration legislation committee's inquiry into the FOI Amendment Bill 2025 , the APS Commission (APSC) states that, "There have been significant observations that the operation of the FOI framework since the (2010) reforms ... has had unintended negative consequences on actual transparency, integrity and record keeping."

The question is whether those "significant observations" merely reflect a culture within the APS or are based on real evidence.

The APSC quotes the 2019 Thodey Review , which, in t

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