Your Right to Know: Deputy Premier Susan Close under Opposition fire for desperately exploiting‘ FOI laws

South Australians’ right to know is under threat after the Deputy Premier authorised expensive search bills without consultation, critics claim.

South Australians’ right to know is under threat after a senior state government minister authorised expensive search bills, critics claim.

Freedom of Information laws has allowed access, at various cost, to critical information on state government decisions, work and operations affecting taxpayers for more than 30 years.

But the Opposition, which on Wednesday proposed FOI reforms, has accused Deputy Premier Susan Close has been accused of “desperately exploiting” the public’s right to know after she allowed expensive invoices after one warning.

Dr Close, the Environment Minister who has been criticised over her FOI actions, defended allowing her department to send expensive invoices without consultation and said she was “dedicated” to transperency.

She argued that extensive resources were “unreasonably” diverted and requests were being abused.

State law allows a $40.75 fee to access information while $15.40 is charged for every 15 minutes an agency spends dealing with applications.

Politicians are allowed free work worth up to $1000.

Liberal Upper House leader Nicola Centofanti, had sought various documents and correspondence between Dr Close and Labor MPs or her departments.

But instead of seeking changes, multiple invoices were then issued for more than $1500 without warning, which the Liberals are refusing to pay.

Liberal leader David Speirs, and Upper House colleague Heidi Girolamo, were allowed to narrow their requests including one $16,077.60 application.

Opposition spokeswoman for government accountability, Michelle Lensink, argued it was against the “spirit” of the laws as consultation was a standard practice for decades.

The Freedom of Information Act, introduced in 1991, does not, however, require an agency to consult to “narrow the scope” of any requests.

“This is one of the lowest acts Susan Close has ever committed to boycott transparency and accountability,” she said.

“Susan Close is desperately exploiting FOI laws to conceal information from South Australians, and it begs the question why?”

She said the Opposition had “no choice” but to make changes to FOI laws to “stop Susan Close from flouting the same process and procedure the Deputy Premier’s own Labor colleagues manage to competently follow without incident”.

Other FOI Reforms, first outlined in 2020 under the former Liberal government, included overhauling how requests are managed, increasing watchdog powers and updating rules to reflect electronic communications, management and storage.

Mr Speirs had sought advice from state Ombudsman, which rules on contentious applications agency refuse, but the FOI watchdog said laws don’t allow Ministers’ actions to be investigated.

Opposition MPs, and media, often use the laws to uncover bureaucratic work on various issues or access to secret information.

Agencies can refuse applications, before the Ombudsman issues legal rulings that can be appealed to a tribunal.

Some government agencies are exempt from FOI while certain documents are also not publicly released such as those for Cabinet, which are released after a decade.

In a letter to Dr Centofanti, Dr Close said FOI provided for the “promotion of openness and accountability of government”.

She said her decisions, flagged in August last year to applicants, complied with state law after broad applications meant at least two days work for an adviser.

Refusing to waive charges, she said many Liberal applications were an “unreasonable use of resources”.

She said the fee changes were communicated to relevent MPs after one warning that also waived that fee and urged them to reconsider more “precise” requests.

Her spokeswoman said last year her office spent more than $129,000 dealing with requests and had hired a full time staffer to respond to the “high volume” of requests.

She said requests were legally processed.

Originally published as Your Right to Know: Deputy Premier Susan Close under Opposition fire for desperately exploiting‘ FOI laws