Blog

Notes from our desk.

Considered, longer-form writing: organisation news, transparency and FOI commentary, service updates, and posts from our partners.

OpenAustralia Foundation, RightToKnow.org.au

13 August 2026

This is what our library is for

A regulator set out to check whether government agencies publish the documents they release under freedom of information law. To do it, they used our collection.
OpenAustralia.org, They Vote For You

10 August 2026

Why does democracy need a library?

The democratic process relies on an unfettered flow of information. In Australia, the Westminster system of democracy sees representatives elected based on, presumably, their good character, their stated…
Morph

30 July 2026

morph.io is stuck in 2016. Help us get it out.

morph.io has been quietly running scrapers for the civic tech world for over a decade. Over 11,100 public scrapers, 43 million rows of data, and one server that’s…
Announcement, ElectionLeaflets.org.au, OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au, RightToKnow.org.au, They Vote For You

17 July 2026

A year of putting democracy in more hands: our 2025-26 in review

Our 2025-26 year in review: 198,020 development applications collected, 57 new councils added and 133 restored on Planning Alerts, 1,678 FOI requests on Right to Know, a growing…
OpenAustralia.org, research, They Vote For You

24 June 2026

Seven in ten decisions in Parliament happen without a recorded vote

Forget what politicians say. What truly matters is what they do, and what they do is vote, to write the laws that affect us all. That idea is…
Announcement, Morph, OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au, RightToKnow.org.au

17 February 2026

Become a Fundraising Champion for Civic Tech

The OpenAustralia Foundation is a small charity with a big footprint. We build free, open-source tools that help Australians understand what their government is doing and exercise their…
ElectionLeaflets, ElectionLeaflets.org.au

2 December 2025

Farewell Election Leaflets

Today we’re retiring Election Leaflets, a project that enabled people to upload and search political advertising from around Australia. When we launched it in 2010, online political transparency…
RightToKnow.org.au

11 November 2025

Balancing Transparency, Safety and Public Interest on Right to Know

In December last year we made a difficult decision to no longer allow people to make requests to the Classification Board or the Classification Review Board for documents…
RightToKnow.org.au, Uncategorized

8 September 2025

“Strengthening” FOI or sabotaging It? Why we oppose the FOI Amendment Bill 2025

The Albanese Government has introduced the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025, presented as a reform to “strengthen” the FOI framework. According to the Attorney-General’s press release, the…
RightToKnow.org.au

24 June 2025

Our Submission: Changes to Part 3 of the FOI Guidelines

We have made a submission to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), who were consulting on changes they proposed to make to Part 3 — Processing…