Parliament House department exempt from Freedom of Information laws dubbed an 'anomaly' that needs to change

Transparency advocates say the government needs to make a powerful Parliament House department subject to Freedom of Information requests.The bosses of the Department of Parliamentary Services will face senators in Canberra on Tuesday.

Then leader of the house Anthony Albanese introduced that legislation and insisted it was an "interim measure". However, the laws have remained untouched ever since. "It's a tool available to the public to shine a light on what it is that the executive government is doing and we know that people perform better when they're being watched."The change Mr Albanese made in 2013 came in response to concerns confidential research MPs and senators were seeking from the Parliamentary Library could be subject to FOI requests, which he said was never the intent of the FOI act.

After a little over a month, the then government received that review, which recommended that DPS administrative documents should be subject to FOI. Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost said she was concerned by the ABC's reports and insisted "everybody should work in a safe workplace no matter where they are".The DPS website states that while it is exempt from FOI requests, it responds to requests in accordance with its information requests policy.

Typically, when a person sends a FOI request to a government department, they receive correspondence, usually via email, confirming the request has been received.

Milton Dick Anthony Albanese Rex Patrick Sue Lines Anthony Albanese DPS

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