A new website aiming to make public access to government-held documents easier using existing FOI laws has failed to get the support of the government.
'Right to Know' was developed by the Open Australia Foundation and launched last week, coinciding with the 30-year anniversary of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act.
Henare Degan, spokesman for the Open Australia Foundation, says Australia's Freedom of Information laws are among the oldest in the world, but are “wildly under-used”.
“So far [the response] has been really positive, we've had a lot of people from the public emailing and saying it's fantastic.”
Users can submit a request to government agencies for documents, which are then published on the site.
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They can also browse previous requests and view correspondence between those who have submitted the request and agency representatives.
Mr Degan says government agencies have also been largely helpful and responsive to the requests.
“The one place we haven't had such positive feedback from is the government itself. The government indicated they weren't supporting it,” he added.
Senator Jacinta Collins, Manager of Government Business, said in the Senate last week the government would "not be supporting this motion".
"It may well be a good initiative, but we are not yet in a position to know.
"We also note that the site is being launched with a hackfest and a reported intention to shame public servants."
Mr Degan disputed the "intention to shame" comment, saying this was a statement incorrectly attributed to him in an earlier news report, which has since been corrected.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General's office declined to comment on the clarification.
Watch: Meet the founders of 'Right to Know':
