Andrew Wallace, the recently appointed shadow attorney-general, expressed his frustration over the stalled progress of a key bill he anticipated would be discussed in the Senate this week. He lamented that the legislation “has gone nowhere” due to the lack of a consensus.

Currently, the bill is being reviewed by a committee, with a detailed report expected to be published next week.

Among the proposed changes, the bill introduces new criteria under which Freedom of Information (FOI) requests could be denied. Notably, if fulfilling a request requires more than 40 hours of work by the department, it could be rejected.

There are also new ways FOIs could be rejected, including if it takes the department more than 40 hours to provide the information.