Freedom of information processes can take months to complete and the information that is released often arrives heavily redacted. Still other information, like company data and land information, can be accessed through online registers, but costs a substantial fee for most users per search or document. The government says there are good reasons why this information cannot be disclosed: privacy, legislation, and in one case the threat of arson. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Your Right to Know, a campaign by media companies backing the public's right to learn critical information, is pushing for changes to get this kind of information into the public domain.

Here is just some of what governments are keeping secret. 1. Flammable cladding Flames rise from the Grenfell Tower building on fire in London where 72 people died. Credit:AP There are 444 buildings across NSW with a high risk of flammable cladding — a product that can cause flames to race up the side of high rise buildings. The government refuses to release the list leaving the public clueless about which city buildings pose a fire risk.

A planning department spokeswoman said identifying affected buildings would create an arson risk. Loading "Disclosing or publishing the addresses of affected buildings could also create unfounded and unnecessary concern and could imply buildings are unsafe when this may not be the case," the spokeswoman said. But Greens MLC David Shoebridge said the government's refusal is driven by fear of scrutiny. 2. Parliamentarians' allowances

NSW parliamentarians receive allowances worth many tens of thousands of dollar on top of base salaries that range from about $160,000 to $400,000. But what MPs spend their extensive allowance money on is largely kept secret. They do not "need to substantiate to the Parliament expenses up to the daily rate" for their Sydney allowance and MPs do not have to demonstrate how or if they have spent their electorate allowance. Any unpaid balance can be kept as extra income. While the Parliament publishes MP's spending in aggregate, the details are not, so the public cannot tell if MPs are spending taxpayer dollars responsibly. The Independent Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal, which sets politicians' pay, said in its 2019 annual report that "public reporting of members’ expenditure will improve transparency regarding the expenditure of public money". 3. Poker machines

Poker machines take in billions of dollars across NSW but the figure per club and pub is not disclosed. Credit:Peter Braig NSW is the poker machine capital of the country, with gamblers losing billions annually in clubs and pubs. While the Office of Liquor & Gaming, which monitors the industry, knows how much money every poker machine venue in the state takes in, that information is kept secret. "State taxation legislation prevents the release of financial data such as gaming machine profits for individual venues," a spokesman for the office said. "We do, however, provide venue rankings of net profit without revealing the figures." This provision makes it harder to compare clubs' gambling profits to the charitable contributions that have been used to justify them. 4. Hospital issues

In 2017-2018, there were 18 "sentinel events" — the worst kind of medical failures that can include avoidable deaths, surgery performed on the wrong person or medical implements left behind inside a patient — in NSW. The government refuses to disclose what kind of sentinel event occurred or where. Loading And while sentinel events are the worst that can happen at a hospital, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to medical complications. The federal government also collects data on another set of issues called "hospital-acquired complications". This data shows there is a hospital where one in six patients suffer a complication, far above the national average, but we don't know where it is, leaving consumers in the dark about a key health care risk. A NSW Health spokeswoman said "sentinel events are part of a confidential and privileged reporting process which respects patient privacy and encourages clinicians to openly report adverse events".

"Hospital-level data on HACs is not published to protect the confidentiality of individuals," a federal health department spokesman said. 5. Specialist fees Loading As the controversy over neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has highlighted, specialist medical fees can be eye-wateringly expensive. While many surgeons charge no or known gap fees, some "gouge" thousands of dollars from their patients. And while the federal government knows how much each specialist is charging through Medicare, that data is not made public, making it difficult for patients to compare their options before surgery.

The government is working to publish typical specialist cost data broken down by region and a searchable site with specialists' fees where they agree to disclose them. A Health Department spokesman said the government was unable to disclose individual specialist's fees it collected through Medicare. "Under the Health Insurance Act, it is an offence to disclose data collected under the Act, including to pay Medicare benefits," he said. 6. Super funds Michael Hodge, QC, demanded to know what superannuation funds do with our money during the royal comission. Credit:AAP Michael Hodge, QC, memorably said one challenge for the Hayne royal commission was to find out what superannuation managers were doing "alone in the dark with our money". In a report last year, the Productivity Commission found out what more than 30 funds were doing: persistently underperforming.

According to the commission, there is about $57 billion of Australians' money, which is supposed to set them up for retirement, in default super funds that is underperforming. But the names of those super funds have not been released. Xavier O'Halloran, director of Super Consumers Australia, said having data on underperforming funds "would be a massive boost to people trying to navigate the almost 40,000 investment options in super" but added that any release would have to be staged to avoid uninformed consumers remaining in even worse funds. 7. Pets One of many unorthodox pets in Sydney, a pony that lives in the Inner West. Credit:Amanda Smith / Instagram @frannbrown

The government keeps a register of all pets in NSW from pitbulls to pythons. And while statewide data is available, it isn't broken down by region or suburb. So, if you want to find out whether you're living near an exotic or dangerous animal you cannot find out. 8. Nursing home assaults Commissioner Lynelle Briggs has said in the interim report into the aged care sector that the cruel and harmful system must be changed. Credit:AAP Hundreds of thousands of Australians live in aged care facilities. Thousands of them have been involved in assaults, according to data from the federal Department of Health.