Media releases

With the potential to improve climate outcomes for all Australians, this final step in the landmark Australian Climate Case will see closing arguments made at the Federal Court sitting in Cairns from 29 April. ...

Governments will no longer be able to use ministerial reshuffles to deny freedom of information (FOI) requests, following a Federal Court win today for transparency campaigner Rex Patrick.

Dear Attorney-General, Freedom of information reform is long overdue. We write to urge the Government to act on the recommendations made in the recent report of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee’s...

Today, former Senator and transparency advocate Rex Patrick’s appeal over a judicial ruling - that the Information Commissioner's multi-year delays in reviewing FOI document access refusal decisions are legally reasonable - is to be...

Yesterday evening, the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee released its report into the operation of Commonwealth Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. The Committee’s report paints a damning picture of a highly dysfunctional,...

Today at 10:15am, transparency advocate Justin Warren’s long-running legal fight over access to key documents behind the harmful Robodebt scheme will be heard by the Full Federal Court. The case has the potential to...

Today at 10am, four remote renters will continue their fight to invalidate the Northern Territory Government’s controversial ‘remote rent framework’ in a hearing in the NT Court of Appeal.

Following extraordinary On-Country hearings in Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) in June, further hearings for the landmark Australian Climate Case will resume at the Australian Federal Court in Naarm (Melbourne) from 8–27 November.

Today, the High Court unanimously recognised for the first time the right of tenants to compensation for disappointment and distress when a rented house does not meet legal standards. They did so on the...

In an important victory for renters and remote Indigenous communities, the NT Supreme Court today ruled that the public housing landlord is legally required to supply safe drinking water to its tenants.

Former senator and now transparency advocate Rex Patrick has filed an appeal challenging the Federal Court's May 2023 determination that multi-year delays by the Information Commissioner in processing Freedom of Information (FOI) reviews were...

First Nations people have cared for Country and communities for millennia.  They have done so in the face of colonisation, violence and neglect at the hands of generations of Australian policymakers. From massacres and...

In a dramatic turn of events, the QLD Government’s Department of Youth Justice has admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland that it has been detaining children on an unlawful basis in police watch...

Hearings for the potentially groundbreaking Australian Climate Case will take place On Country in the Torres Strait (Zenadth Kes), 5-19 June. Guda Maluyligal plaintiffs Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai from the islands...

Former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, has been visiting communities in the Torres Strait to stand alongside Uncle Paul Kabai on Saibai island and Uncle Pabai Pabai on Boigu island as they bring the...

Rex Patrick tackles the Information Commissioner’s decision that former Attorney General Christian Porter’s documents are no longer “official Ministerial documents”.

On Monday 20 March from 10.15am, the Federal Court in Melbourne will hear a long-awaited challenge to the lengthy delays that plague freedom of information (FOI) requests being reviewed by the Australian Information Commissioner....

On Thursday 16 March from 9.45am, the High Court of Australia will consider whether compensation is available for distress or disappointment suffered by First Nations people living in dilapidated housing in remote communities. It...

The 'Australian Climate Case' progresses to the next step today with community members revealing how climate change has impacted lives in the Torres Strait.

Key documents behind the former Government’s decision to set up the failed Robodebt scheme will not be released, following a decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.