The following are comments made on the Issues Paper by students in the Advanced Administrative Law Class, Summer Session 1994-1995, at the University of Wollongong. The students worked in pairs to provide responses to various sections of the Issues Paper. Therefore any comments and observations do not necessarily reflect the shared opinion or judgment of each person or necessarily the group as a whole. The views in this submission do reflect those of currently enrolled law students who have had one or two lectures given to them about FoI in their normal Public Law courses and have since experienced a further nine hours of training with FoI during their Advanced Administrative Law Class. Therefore the views and observations made in this submission reflect those of moderately informed observers who are likely to be frequent users of the legislation in the next two to three decades.
Current objectives of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) focus on government accountability, public participation in government and access to personal records. Fundamental and essential requirements for the effective operation of an Australian democratic society requires people to be incorporated within the governmental matrix. "The system of representative democracy depends for its efficacy on the free flow of information and ideas and of debate, the freedom extends to all those who participate in political discussion."1 Distilled from the provisions of the Commonwealth Constitution an implied freedom of communication was recognised as enhancing the concept of representative democracy. 2
It is submitted that the objectives of the FOI Act are adequate and should be retained as the focus of the Act's purpose. The FOI Act is a tool that the general public can use to understand government decision making which will enhance a democratic society.
2. Nationwide news Pty Ltd v Wills (1992) 177 CLR 1; Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (1992) 177 CLR 106.