A costly three-year legal battle over the release of a minister's diary has been labelled a "monumental waste of everyone's time" by the man keen to see its contents.
Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus said Attorney-General George Brandis' diary contained no evidence he consulted community legal centres before slashing their funding in 2013 and 2014.
"What a waste of of taxpayers' money, of public servants' time, of the court's time just because of - apparently - the attorney-general's vanity," Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio on Monday.
Mr Dreyfus rejected the argument the meetings could have been convened at short notice or conducted over the phone.
"It (the diary) is the record we've got; let the attorney-general explain who did he meet with. I think you'll find he didn't meet with anybody."
The protracted freedom of information battle had cost tens of thousands of dollars.
"The time that FOI requests are meant to take in Australia is 30 days - this request has taken over 1000 to be properly dealt with with much," Mr Dreyfus said.
"For the minister who is responsible for administering the FOI Act, of all things, the attorney-general should be ashamed of himself."
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