The FOI Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament

The Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 (FOI Amendment Bill) was introduced to Parliament on 3 September 2025. The FOI Amendment Bill will amend the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) and the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 (Cth) (AIC Act). 

The FOI Amendment Bill has introduced the biggest changes to the FOI Act in more than a decade. The proposed changes will modernise the FOI framework and address abuses of process that can consume a disproportionate amount of agency resources. 

We summarise some of the key changes below.

What are the changes? 

The FOI Amendment Bill proposes the following key changes to the FOI Act: 

• Schedule 2 will introduce a requirement that an FOI request cannot be made anonymously or under a pseudonym, and that a person must declare when making a FOI request on behalf of a third party. This is necessary to achieve the legitimate objectives of ensuring vexatious applicant declarations are effective and ensuring personal information is only disclosed in appropriate circumstances. This will have significant impacts on an applicant’s ability to use websites such as RightToKnow to submit anonymous requests. 
• Schedule 3 will introduce a discretionary 40-hour processing cap for FOI requests, acknowledging that there needs to be an appropriate balance between an applicant’s access rights and the administrative burden on agencies in providing such access. This is a significant amendment, which will fundamentally change the approach to practical refusal consultations and decisions. 
• Schedule 5 will create a new power for the Information Commissioner (IC) to remit IC review applications with directions to decision-makers for further consideration. This means that the IC will no longer be relying on an agency’s discretion under s 55G to revise a decision during an IC review. 
• Schedule 6 will create a power in the FOI Act to enable an application fee to be specified in the regulations, for FOI requests, internal reviews and IC reviews, excluding requests for an individual’s own personal information. If an application fee is introduced to the regulations, it will be similar to other state-based information access legislation such as the GIPA Act in NSW.
• Schedule 8 includes amendments which provide for an FOI request (or related review proceeding) to be responded to by an agency or other Minister where the original Ministerial respondent to the matter ceases to hold the relevant Office. This is a practical change which reflects recent case law in Attorney-General (Cth) v Patrick [2024] FCAFC 126 and Geoffrey Shafran and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel (Freedom of information) [2025] AICmr 46.

What’s next?

We will provide a more in depth look at the FOI Amendment Bill over the coming days.  In the meantime, you can access the Explanatory Memorandum here.