Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney-General
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
5 MARCH 2026
COALITION DELIVERS VICTORY FOR AUSTRALIA’S RIGHT TO KNOW
The Coalition has delivered a significant victory to the Australian people’s right to know with the Albanese Government today forced to abandon its flawed Freedom of Information Bill.
The Bill was discharged from the Senate notice paper after the Government realised it changes had no support in the Senate or across the Australian community.
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Attorney-General Senator Michaelia Cash said the Bill’s collapse was a clear demonstration that Labor’s arrogant, secretive approach to governance had been comprehensively rejected.
“Today the Albanese Government has been humiliated. It introduced a Bill that was about hiding government information, keeping information secret and destroying transparency and it has been exposed,’’ Senator Cash said.
“This Bill had not a single friend outside the public service. It was opposed by the Coalition, all other parties and the crossbench, every major media organisation, every integrity body, and civil society groups across the country,’’ Senator Cash said
“When everyone is telling you you’re wrong, you’re wrong. This was a comprehensive defeat for a government so addicted to secrecy that it tried to legislate its way out of accountability, and the Coalition is proud to have led the fight against it.”
The Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 would have fundamentally undermined Australians’ right to scrutinise their government.
“Freedom of Information is not a privilege granted by government at its discretion. It is a democratic safeguard, the mechanism through which citizens hold power to account. This Government tried to take that safeguard away, and it has been stopped,” Senator Cash said. “The Freedom of Information framework needs to be overhauled but in the right way not the Labor secretive way,’’ Senator Cash.
ENDS
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