An unlikely alliance of 18 crossbench politicians, including One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, Senator Jacqui Lambie, and independent Senator David Pocock, has urged Attorney General Michelle Rowland to intervene in a legal case against transparency campaigner and former senator Rex Patrick. The case concerns the release of documents detailing where nuclear waste from the Aukus submarine fleet will be stored in Australia.
Background of the case
Patrick won an administrative appeal under freedom of information (FOI) rules in May, seeking the documents. However, the acting secretary of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Julia Pickworth, has appealed to the federal court, seeking to overturn the decision and obtain an order for Patrick to pay the government's legal costs if he loses. Those costs could exceed $150,000, which Patrick says represents an attack on the public interest.
Politicians' letter and civil society support
The signatories to the parliamentary letter include teal MPs Allegra Spender and Monique Ryan, independents Ralph Babet and Lidia Thorpe, and Greens Senator David Shoebridge. They stated: "It is clear to us that this is an attack on our freedom of information regime, with the intent of deterring Australians from pursuing access to information." They added that dragging an ordinary citizen, self-represented and under threat of costs, to argue questions of law raised by the government is most unfair.
A group of civil society organisations, including the Human Rights Law Centre, Transparency International Australia, and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, also sought Rowland's intervention. They warned that the risk of government appeals will stop ordinary citizens from seeking information, creating a chilling effect that operates silently through cost exposure at the Federal Court level.
Patrick's response and government stance
Patrick said the case is Labor's latest attack on Australia's FOI regime, following the government's March decision to dump controversial proposed changes that would have imposed new fees and reduced transparency. He said: "This latest threat is nothing more than a backdoor way to undermine Australia's already broken FOI system and ensure the government can continue to choose secrecy over accountability." He noted that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was elected on a promise of transparency but has failed to deliver. A spokesperson for Rowland declined to comment on the case.
