07:37

Tony Shepherd, the former chairman of Transfield who conducted a review of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif), has been up before a Senate committee examining the scheme.

Labor and Greens senators have been asking about why Shepherd recommended that Naif be exempt from the freedom of information process.



Shepherd said his perception was that in its early days Naif was “burdened by freedom of information requests” as a “campaign was mounted against [it]” which the agency found “disconcerting and difficult to deal with”.

He said:



“That was acting as a distraction and a deterrent and produced an over-abundance of caution.”

And which project was at the centre of this campaign? Shepherd said it was “a particular project in Queensland”. It sounds like the Adani Carmichael coalmine, which has generated fierce scrutiny about possible avenues of receiving taxpayer subsidy or concessional loans.

But Shepherd suggests the Naif has now developed a capacity to deal with “an excessive number” and “frivolous, campaign-driven FOIs” that are not “genuinely seeking information”.