Independent Western Australia Senator Fatima Payman’s motion, which sought to discharge the flawed Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025, failed after the majority of the Liberals and Nationals abstained on the vote.
The FOI legislation was introduced into the House of Representatives at the end of last year despite little public support.
The committee inquiry into the Bill received 70 submissions and the only two submissions of support came from Government organisations.
Senator Payman said it was disappointing that the Coalition enabled the Government in its pursuit of decreasing transparency and accountability.
“The Opposition talks a big game about holding the Government to account, but when push came to shove, they lost their backbone,” Ms Payman said
“In the Coalition’s dissenting report on the Bill, they said it proposed ‘unwarranted and undemocratic changes to Australia’s freedom of information regime’.
“I guess now they’ve bought some time to do their backroom deals before the legislation is debated in the Senate.
“Any assertion that there wasn’t enough time to consider my motion is rubbish, because this motion has been on the notice paper since 27 November 2025.
“If you can’t come to a position in 68 days, then what are we even doing here?”
The motion was cosigned by crossbench Senators David Pocock, Tammy Tyrrell, Lidia Thorpe, and Jacqui Lambie.
It was supported in the Senate by the Greens, One Nation and Ralph Babet.
ENDS
Contact details:
Ash Telford
Chief-of-staff
0424 375 160
ashleigh.telford@aph.gov.au
