Category Archives: RightToKnow.org.au

Right to Know Pro For Journalists, Researchers, Academics, Campaigners, and FOI professionals.

By Kat Szuminska | Published: March 30, 2021

A new way to make FOI requests, for professionals Since we launched Right to Know we’ve regularly heard from journalists, who would love to use Right to Know, but need to keep Freedom of Information (FOI) requests under wraps until a story comes together. We also know it’s not only journalists who need to work […]

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How we deal with moderation on Right to Know

By Ben Fairless | Published: November 4, 2020

There have recently been a few articles published in The Guardian about a request on Right to Know that we were asked to moderate. As one of the volunteers who spends the most time looking after Right to Know, I wanted to explain what happened in this case and explain how we moderate requests on […]

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Freedom of Information Amendments proposed

By Kat Szuminska | Published: November 23, 2018

On 23 August 2018 the Senate referred the Freedom of Information Legislation Amendment (Improving Access and Transparency) Bill 2018 to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 30 November 2018. Here is OpenAustralia Foundation’s submission to the Senate in response. Prepared by Ben Fairless, Katherine Szuminska, James Polley, Matthew Landauer SummaryAmends the: Archives […]

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People Have Problems Accessing Information

By Kat Szuminska | Published: September 26, 2017

‘Australia will ensure our information access laws, policies and practices are modern and appropriate for the digital information age.’ That’s the ambitious task that Attorney General’s Department took on with Open Government commitment 3.1 Information management and access laws for the 21st century, in Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan. Attorney General’s Department saw a […]

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A great win for Right to Know, FOI and transparency

By Ben Fairless | Published: May 11, 2017

Ben Fairless is a volunteer administrator of our Freedom of Information (FOI) request site, Right To Know. When the ATO started to refuse valid FOI requests from people on Right To Know he made a personal complaint to the OAIC about his refused request. He has some good news to share! You may have been […]

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Hacking democracy and playing the long game – Luke Bacon at linux.conf.au 2017

By Luke Bacon | Published: February 10, 2017

Last month Henare and I were in Hobart for linux.conf.au. We met lots of really nice people working on a dizzying array of interesting projects. Linux.conf.au is Australia’s biggest conference for people building and using Free and Open Source Software. People come from all over the world to be there. Henare and Matthew from the […]

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Right to Know, the ATO, independence and transparency

By Henare Degan | Published: January 25, 2017

Since August 2016, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been refusing to process the valid Freedom of Information requests they receive from people using Right To Know. At least two of the people who have had their requests blocked have lodged complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). One of them is […]

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There’s no better way to learn how easy FOI requests are than to make one

By Luke Bacon | Published: November 24, 2016

Most people I speak to about making Freedom of Information requests think it’s too difficult to waste time on—it’s for lawyers, not them. When I’ve seen our FOI system presented in a teaching context, the clear message is ‘FOI is too hard, too slow, and too expensive’. The message has sunk in, including with journalists, […]

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How to send your Freedom of Information request to many authorities at once

By Henare Degan | Published: November 7, 2016

Right To Know makes it simple for you to request information from any public authority in Australia. Sometimes you might want to ask the same question but to lots of different public authorities at once. Right To Know can help you there too, with batch requests. Batch requests let you write one request that gets […]

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Happy Right To Know Day – you have the Right To Know, now right across Australia

By Henare Degan | Published: September 28, 2016

Is it safe for your children to swim in the river? How much did your council spend on that fancy new mobile app? Will we be building better public transport? How much graffiti is being reported in your area? What really happened to those stranded whales you heard about? Australia’s state and local governments create […]

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