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George Brandis loses bid to keep ministerial diary private

Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has lost his latest bid to keep his ministerial diary private, after a long-running Freedom of Information (FOI) dispute with his Labor counterpart Mark Dreyfus.

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Mark Dreyfus contends Senator Brandis did not consult with stakeholders in the community legal sector in the eight months leading up to the budget and the minister’s diary will prove that.

“It’s after what has been a far too-long battle over a very, very simple freedom of information act request”, he said.

Mr Dreyfus insisted Senator Brandis should abandon his ridiculous and expensive quest to keep his ministerial diary secret after the Federal Court ruled there was no reason for stopping its publication. This ruling – with costs- does not release the diaries, rather it means the application should now be reconsidered.

Mr Dreyfus appealed the decision to reject his request, and in a ruling in December a year ago Justice Jayne Jagot of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal found no “practical refusal reason exists” and the request must be re-examined.

In their ruling, Justices Anthony Besanko, Alan Robertson and John Griffiths found the Tribunal did not err in its original decision and ordered Senator Brandis to pay Mr Dreyfus’s legal costs.

This morning the Full Court of the Federal Court in Sydney ruled against Senator Brandis, who had argued the FOI application from Mr Dreyfus would have interfered with his daily duties and taken hundreds of hours to process.

Senator Brandis has refused to state how much money had been spent fighting the request.

“He’s the minister responsible for the freedom of information act, that’s the irony”, Mr Dreyfus said.

After being asked if Senator Brandis would take the matter to the High Court, a spokeswoman said: “The Attorney-General will carefully study the reasons of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia and its implications for government”.

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“It is absolutely in the public interest that the interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act be properly understood”.

Attorney-General Senator George Brandis has lost his latest bid to keep his ministerial diaries secret