The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia which guarantees freedom of information (FOI) and the rights of access to official documents of the Commonwealth Government and of its agencies to members of the public.

[1] Between the 1960s and 1980s a number of enquiries were made, looking into the transparency of the Australian government and public services which led to New Industry Law (NAL) reforms.

[1] One of the NAL initiatives was Freedom of Information and is considered a "landmark in the development of Australian democracy".

Some of the changes to the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Act 2010 for applications received on or after 1 November 2010 include : The Italian investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi described Australia as "the worst jurisdiction on earth when it comes to FOIA [Freedom of Information Act]".

She had filed FOI requests with governments throughout the world for documents relating to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.