Australia's government agencies increasingly refusing environment-related FOIs, audit finds

Exclusive: Australian Conservation Foundation also finds growing delays in processing requests by departments and agencies

Australia's freedom of information system is increasingly hiding documents about climate and other environmental issues from the public, a trend driven by skyrocketing refusal rates, widespread delays and rising costs, an audit has found.

The audit, conducted by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), examined five years of FOI requests for environment-related documents across federal and state departments and agencies.