Donna Benjamin

Australia's FOI system is broken, but proposed reforms miss the mark This proposed bill risks doubling down on the very problems it should be fixing.

The Govt should be introducing legislation to provide more transparency, not less.

Their proposed changes to FOI are deeply troubling, though not surprising given in the last parliament they were the 2nd most secretive in 30 years.

That needs to change.
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/907156...

Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 Committee: Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Date referred: 4 September 2025 Submissions close: 1 October 2025 Reporting date: 3 December 2025 On 4 September 2025, the Senate...

Do you care about your #RightToKnow and Freedom of Information? Do you know there's currently a bill before the Australian Parliament?

Do you have lived experience with the #FOI system?

Consider sharing your perspective?

www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

@oaf.org.au @asherwolf.bsky.social

👉 Is your data taking an unplanned leave?
👉 Are your cloud hosts all controlled from differing legal jurisdictions?
👉 These are questions of #dataSovereignty.

⏰ Come and share with us at #EverythingOpen Canberra 2026. #CFP 21 Sep 2025!

2026.everythingopen.au/programme/pr...

#EO2026
#conference

e-petitions e-petitions

✨ Are you in Australia and do you like being able to see the sky at night?

The Australasian Dark Sky Alliance have submitted a petition to request parliament introduce legislation to control light pollution.

The petition is at www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

#FOI costs have doubled over the past decade, not because of more requests, but because the Govt’s culture of secrecy scares sole decision making. Every man, woman & dog in Govt is consulted just in case someone might object to disclosure.

#MountainsOutOfMolehills #YouPay #auspol

huh?
Are you talking about the Australia Institute?
or the Open Australia Foundation?

I thought the podcast discussion was great, discussion of donors doesn't seem directly relevant here.

Hello #PyConAU folk! 👋

Please take note, here's a little PSA - the call for sessions for @everythingopen.au is open until 21 Sept - and will take place in Canberra 21-23 Jan 2026

Thank you @linuxaustralia.bsky.social for auspicing awesome events for our community!

also to plz booost!? kthxbai

This podcast from the @australiainstitute.org.au about the FOI bill is excellent.
#RightToKnow
@oaf.org.au

Make and browse Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

This is one of the benefits we promote with righttoknow.org.au.

We also proactively work with agencies to deal with problematic requests, while fiercely advocating for disclosure.

📣📣📣

Hey aussies. I think you should make a lot of noise about this

The FOI Amendment Bill 2025 will give government new ways to refuse FOI requests, and also introduce a fee for making the request.

👉 www.oaf.org.au/2025/09/08/2...

#RightToKnow #FOI #auspol

The FOI Amendment Bill 2025 makes it harder to hold govt to account: bans anonymous requests, adds a “transparency tax” fee, and expands secrecy. Parliament must reject it.

👉 www.oaf.org.au/2025/09/08/2...

#RightToKnow #FOI #auspol

Nice to hear @andrewwilkiemp.bsky.social defending Freedom of Information and calling for a common sense approach that doesn't lock people out of FOI with fees on ABC Radio this morning

Official trailer for SBS' soon to be released docu-drama 'The People vs. Robodebt' featuring Jenny Miller, Deanna Amato and many others.

www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/2025...

Yes, true that. The ephemera of printed material. I guess these days, screenshots of the customised ads could be added too. Although we will now also have to content with fake material created by genAI.

Unfortunately electionleaflets.org.au is down.

It does sort of still exist in the Trove Pandora archive: webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20100723...

But it's clunky.

It's not been active for many many years. So, is this something you lot care about? Or should we just allow to sunset?

Woot!
As for videos, I do not know, but @joeladdison.au may be able to shed light on that?!

awesome! Thanks @ashthelibrarian.bsky.social 🙏✨

ping

@asherwolf.bsky.social
@kathyreid.au
@saera.au
@sjpiper145.bsky.social
@itgrrl.com
@emmadavidson.bsky.social
@codeconstruct.com.au
@wmau.bsky.social
@beneltham.bsky.social
@philshapiro.bsky.social
@joeladdison.au

Everything Open 2026 | Canberra, Australia

Huzzah!
Everything Open is heading to the University of Canberra 21-23 January 2026 Call for sessions and sponsors is out now!

2026.everythingopen.au

Help us get the conversation started!

#EverythingOpen

@linuxaustralia.bsky.social
@everythingopen.au

Everything Open 2026 | Canberra, Australia

@ashthelibrarian.bsky.social Call for sessions is out for 2026.everythingopen.au - would love to see a full track for all things #OpenEducation :)

awwwwww - champion. 😍
(apols for delayed response, I forgot about bsky)

Just Start! with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs with a cartoonish illustration showing half a shining lightbulb, and half a yellow brain.

Just Start! Prevent analysis paralysis and get your mission moving. Yes, even the wrong direction is better than sitting still. #Agility and #OpenInnovation with #RedHat

For last Saturday’s show, it was International Women’s Day, where the official hashtag was #AccellerateAction. Great conversation with @kattekrab.bsky.social, Miranda and Tamzyn on from many angles of IWD and what it means for the tech industry. Check out the podcast: joy.org.au/technogaze/2...

I don't know what it was, but if you say so, then I do so!
also, Hi, I'm here now, for the moment.

Linux Australia Annual Report 2025

We're delighted to present our 2025 Annual Report, ahead of our #AGM at @everythingopen.au in Tarndanya/Adelaide next week.

Read about the many events we've auspiced this year - including #PyConAU #DrupalSouth, #WordCamp Sydney, #DrupalCon Asia and #PurpleCon.

linux.org.au/about-us/ann...

Everything Open 2025 would not be possible without our sponsors. Auspice sponsor: Linux Australia is the peak body of Open Source communities in Australia. Visit: https://linux.org.au/

Everything Open 2025 would not be possible without our sponsors.

Auspice sponsor: Linux Australia. Visit: linux.org.au

Program: 2025.everythingopen.au/schedule/
Tickets: 2025.everythingopen.au/attend/ticke...

#EO2025 #EverythingOpen #conference #openSource @linuxaustralia.bsky.social

If you plan to participate in this tutorial, you should install siril and download the image data that I have linked from the session page. It is 4GB of data and you will not be able to fetch it at the conference.

It would also be helpful if your laptop had an SSD with at least 30GB of free space.