This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Victorian government falsely claimed it held no internal records on its decision to ban Sky News from train stations to block a journalist’s freedom of information request.

The state Labor government found itself under immense scrutiny in August for banning Sky News from train station screens following the broadcaster’s interview with far-right extremist Blair Cottrell.

Soon after the decision, the independent researcher William Summers lodged a freedom of information request with the then transport minister, Jacinta Allan, asking for “all documents held by her office, including emails, regarding the decision”.

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The request was processed by the department of economic development, jobs, transport and resources. The department’s decision, seen by Guardian Australia, claimed it could do nothing because the documents could not be found.

“In response to your request a thorough search was undertaken of the minister for transport’s office for documents relevant to your request,” the department said. “The search did not discover any relevant documents.”

Perplexed, Summers put in the same FOI with a separate agency, Public Transport Victoria, asking for its correspondence with the minister.

Earlier this month, PTV handed Summers a series of emails between it and the minister’s office. The emails clearly related to the Sky News decision and fell within the scope of Summers’ request. They include a briefing to the minister’s office on several options to restrict Sky News at Victorian train stations, including the removal of the channel from the content loops played on the screens.

Summers described the case as a “joke”. He has filed an official complaint with the information commissioner.

“Clearly the minister’s office had these documents too, but refused to disclose them, instead claiming no such documents existed,” Summers said. “I find it hard to believe this could even be an administrative error given the high profile and recentness of the issue.”

The minister’s office said the process was “conducted within the requirements of the FOI Act”.

In his complaint to the information commissioner, Summers makes the point that the information is now practically useless, given the delays in its release. An election has since passed, and the issue is no longer relevant in any sense.

But he argued that preventing this kind of behaviour was critical to the proper functioning of the state’s FOI laws.

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“We have since had an election and a Cabinet reshuffle,” he said in his formal complaint. “Getting further information about this now is a pointless exercise. What is at stake, however, is the very basis of the FOI Act, and the responsibility of government departments and agencies to comply with it.”

“I would therefore like the Information Commissioner to investigate why the three emails from PTV to the minister’s office were not handed over in response to my initial FOI request to the minister’s office.”