Too much of a good thing? Balancing transparency and government effectiveness in FOI public interest decision making

The ‘new age’ of transparency heralded a raft of reforms to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act 1982) that shifted control of information away from government in a bid to increase transparency and accountability. Conclusive certificates, for example, were abolished in 2009 and a number of exemptions, including the exemption for deliberative documents, were made conditional on a single public interest test in 2010. Transparency is not, however, an absolute and cannot be an end in itself; it has value only insofar as it enhances accountability. Even then, the proper balance must be struck between transparency, efficiency and effectiveness.

This paper considers the role and importance of transparency and its relationship to the public interest test in the FOI Act 1982. It examines the basis and impact of recent reforms and asks whether they do, in fact, strike the right balance in respect of the deliberative processes of government. Have the reforms resulted in more accountability or less? Is there a danger that we now have ‘too much of a good thing’, that is, transparency, but that efficiency, effectiveness and even accountability have been inappropriately compromised?