{"id":830037,"date":"2026-07-28T23:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830037\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T23:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:26:23","slug":"anger-at-labor-as-rex-patrick-faces-potential-six-figure-legal-fee-if-he-loses-aukus-documents-battle-freedom-of-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830037\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger at Labor as Rex Patrick faces potential six-figure legal fee if he loses Aukus documents battle | Freedom of information"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government will insist Rex Patrick pays up to $150,000 to cover its legal costs if he loses a fight to access documents about the Aukus<\/a> agreement, escalating a battle in which several crossbench MPs have swung behind the former senator.<\/p>\n

The transparency campaigner has used freedom of information laws to seek details on where nuclear waste from the submarine fleet will be stored, and won an administrative appeal on the matter in May.<\/p>\n

But the Department of Industry, Science and Resources has appealed the matter to the federal court, seeking the decision be overturned and an order for Patrick to pay the government\u2019s legal costs if he loses.<\/p>\n

Politicians including Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson have lashed the decision<\/a>, warning it is a breach of rules requiring the government to act as a model litigant.<\/p>\n

They, along with unions and transparency groups, have made appeals to the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, but have been rebuffed.<\/p>\n

According to documents seen by Guardian Australia, Rowland last week said the government could rightly insist on Patrick being required to pay costs if he loses, acting \u201cfirmly and properly\u201d to protect its interests.<\/p>\n

Rowland wrote to a group of crossbenchers \u2013 including independents Helen Haines, David Pocock and the Greens\u2019 David Shoebridge \u2013 saying the industry department was responsible for conduct of the case.<\/p>\n

The department does not accept the model litigant rules prevent it from seeking costs from Patrick. Previous legal fights have seen fees of much as $150,000.<\/p>\n

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Lambie has accused Rowland of \u201cbehaving like a Labor stooge\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is sending a very clear message to people: stop when we say you can\u2019t have information under FoI, or we\u2019ll take you to court and you could lose all your savings \u2026 and maybe your house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot believe the attorney general has handballed what is a whole-of-government principle issue to the secretary of a single department. The attorney is behaving like a Labor stooge, and either doesn\u2019t have any leadership within her or doesn\u2019t care. So which one is it?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue is not going to just go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organisations including the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, the Grata Fund, the Alliance for Journalists\u2019 Freedom and Australian Democracy Network have all called on the government to stop the legal challenge.<\/p>\n

Tosca Lloyd, a Whistleblower Justice Fund campaigner, said the risk of a six-figure legal bill would limit ordinary use of FoI rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis chilling effect is neither hypothetical nor unintentional,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPublic interest journalism depends on the FoI system. Investigative reporters \u2013 especially those at smaller and independent outlets \u2013 use it constantly to uncover stories the public has a right to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the cost of challenging a bad government decision is federal court litigation, most newsrooms simply won\u2019t take that risk. The stories then won\u2019t get told. That\u2019s a loss for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Browne, the Australia Institute\u2019s Democracy & Accountability program director, said departments and ministers should not fight FoI applicants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Albanese government already tried to restrict Australians\u2019 right to access government information, and was rebuffed by the Senate. This looks like another attempt to raise the cost of scrutinising the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick said legal precedent dating back to a 1912 high court decision showed a \u201cstandard of fair play\u201d should be observed by governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some experience in courtrooms and have asked the court to ensure fairness from government and that these laws will be decided with competent barristers arguing different sides of the secrecy\/transparency questions before it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can just hope that the courts will address the misguided sense of fairness and proper process exhibited by the attorney general.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Rowland declined to comment, referring questions to the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government will insist Rex Patrick pays up to $150,000 to cover its legal costs if he loses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-830037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}