The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently ruled that national cabinet was not a sub-committee of the federal government. This meant that its deliberations could be subjected to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had previously used the ‘sub-committee of the federal government’ argument to defeat the efforts of independent senator Rex Patrick to gain access to national cabinet deliberations.
Following the AAT’s ruling, the federal government tabled legislation to thwart the AAT’s ruling, provoking outrage from Patrick:
