QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (16:11): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Trade and Tourism (Senator Farrell) to a question without notice I asked today relating to freedom of information. When Prime Minister Albanese was in opposition, he was all for our freedom of information laws and said: We don't need a culture of secrecy.

We need a culture of disclosure. But, since he got into the Lodge, he's kept the culture of secrecy going. It's just another lie from the Labor Party.

In 2025, the government tried to push through changes to our FOI laws. Luckily, this Senate crossbench managed to knock them off in March 2026. Because this attack on our FOI laws went down, Prime Minister Albanese and his attorney-general are now trying to intimidate Australians so they don't put in FOI requests in the first place.

This is how it works, Aussies. There was an FOI request put in to find out what areas in Australia the government was looking at for AUKUS nuclear waste. The first round was won, the second round was won and we won the third round as well.

That means Australians can now see those documents. But the government have appealed this FOI request, and they attached a condition. If this great Australian turns up to fight this appeal and loses, he will be liable for his and the government's costs, which could add up to over thousands of dollars for him.

This is quite clearly a message to all Australians: do not challenge the FOI claims, because, even if you win, you could lose thousands, and you could lose big. The Prime Minister is starting to behave like a king. Over the past few weeks, the PM's office has sent out an email telling all MPs that, if they want to write to the Prime Minister, they can't use his email anymore.

Now we have to use a portal. He's also taking control of the parliamentary friends groups. These groups are crossparty platforms that are designed to raise awareness about issues affecting Australians.

They are supposed to be nonpartisan. That means you're supposed to leave politics at the door. If an MP wants to start a new group, it must have a Labor co-chair.

If the PM doesn't want a parliamentary friends group, he can stop it. I'd remind the Prime Minister: Australia is a democracy. The Prime Minister needs to remember this and start letting the sunshine into democracy for transparency to shine.

(Time expired) Question agreed to.