Australian secrecy regime

In Australia there is no 'Official Secrets' Act as such at the national level. The Crimes Act 1914 covers unauthorised disclosure of Commonwealth information and there are specific provisions in other legislation.  Regulation 34(b) of the Public Service Regulations (a statutory restriction on public comment by public servants on any administrative action or the administration of any department) were removed in 1974.

The states and territories have legislation dealing with disclosure of their information, whether generally or on a more restricted basis such as protection of registers under the Northern Territory Sacred Sites Act 1989.

Contract and other law provides protection in the private sector for trade secrets and information supplied on a confidential basis. Our intellectual property guide deals with copyright, patent and other IP protection of information.

At the national level the Archives Act 1983 and complementary Freedom of Information Act 1982 cover the retention of information by the national bureaucracy and access to that information.

The High Court in Commonwealth v John Fairfax & Sons Ltd & Ors (the first major Australian case seeking prevention of publication of sensitive government documents relating to Australia's national security and foreign policy) commented that

it can scarcely be a relevant detriment to the government that publication of material concerning its actions will merely expose it to public discussion and criticism. It is unacceptable in our democratic society that there should be are restraint on the publication of information relating to government when the only vice of that information is that it enables the public to discuss, review and criticize government action ...

If, however, it appears that disclosure will be inimical to the public interest because national security, relations with foreign countries or the ordinary business of government will be prejudiced, disclosure will be restrained. There will be cases in which the conflicting considerations will be finely balanced, where it is difficult to decide whether the public's interest in knowing and in expressing its opinion, outweighs the need to protect confidentiality.

     studies

In Australia Greg Terrill's Secrecy & Openness: The Federal Government From Menzies To Whitlam & Beyond (Melbourne: Melbourne Uni Press 2000) considers official secrecy, freedom of information and archives legislation from a national information policy perspective. There is a broader perspective in Archives & the Public Good: Accountability and Records in Modern Society (Westport: Quorum 2002) edited by Richard Cox & David Wallace.

In The Name of National Security (North Ryde: LBC 1995) by Vincent Morabito & Hoong Lee is of interest for information law in Australia. Terrill co-edited the collection of papers in Open Government: Freedom Of Information & Privacy (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1998).

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