Auditor General critical of Treasury’s FOI Fridays

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

3 June 2026

The Department of Treasury has fallen short of its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, according to an Auditor General’s report.

As well, an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report suggested that Treasury may have been seeking to benefit from the news cycle by timing the release of FOI documents for Fridays.

Treasury, which has sat at the heart of the legislation around the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) and the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) legislation, was identified by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) as falling short on a number of counts, including not actually finalising its own policy document.

The ANAO reports says that at the time of the audit Treasury had a draft policy last edited in December 2023 and that it still had substantial elements not yet finalised”.

“It also included various margin comments from Treasury officials offering suggestions and asking questions about the contents,” the report said.

“The draft policy promoted some practices that are inconsistent with the FOI Act. For example, it stated that it ‘is the Department’s policy to send FOI decisions that include documents for release on Fridays’,” the report said.

“This approach, which the ANAO observed was being implemented by Treasury in relation to various requests examined as part of the audit, delays release until Friday of each week. It is not consistent with the FOI Act which requires that decision notification be done ‘as soon as practicable’.”

The ANAO report said Treasury’s draft policy had not been finalised or approved and was out of date with changes to the FOI Act and case law. In October 2025, Treasury advised the ANAO that the December 2023 draft policy was the ‘most advanced’ version and that it ‘nevertheless governs our operating framework’”.

The audit report also pointed to incorrect interpretations on the part of Treasury which effectively blocked FOI access to documents held by former ministers.

“The procedures document under the December 2023 draft policy continued to advise Treasury staff, that ‘The application of the FOI Act to documents ‘in the possession of a minister’ excludes by implication documents held by a former minister’ and that ‘If the requested document is not in the possession of the new minister, the FOI Act will not apply as the document is no longer an ‘official document of the minister’.,” it said.

However, the ANAO pointed out that: “The correct position, following a 2024 decision of the Federal Court of Australia, has been reflected in an update by the OAIC to its Guidelines to recognise that a document does not cease to be an ‘official document of a minister’ if the incoming minister does not have possession of the document”.

“Treasury’s draft policy listed five FOI ‘procedures’ documents. Those five procedure documents do not exist. Rather, Treasury has a single draft procedure. That document attempts to encompass the whole FOI process. It was last edited in November 2022,” the report said.

The ANAO report noted that, in February 2026, Treasury finalised its FOI Policy.

“Treasury removed the reference to former guidance from PM&C on being consulted when entities process Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for documents that contain Cabinet material.

“The policy was amended to address this issue which was raised by the ANAO during the course of the audit. The finalised policy also removed some important requirements that were in the draft policy. For example, the finalised policy does not require a record be made of document searches that were undertaken.

The ANAO pointed to an issue elsewhere in its report that said Treasury had not maintained a record of searches for 73 per cent of requests examined by the ANAO notwithstanding that guidance from the OAIC identifies the importance of this being done