Future Freedom

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An Australian government agency has refused to release the results of market research on controversial labor de-regulation laws until after the next federal election. "The disclosure of the reports could have a tendency to encourage the public's consideration of matters on the basis of misleading impressions," Ted Cole form the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations wrote in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Sydney Morning Herald. The Freedom of Information legislation has the aim of extending "as far as possible, the Australian community's right of access to information in the possession of the Commonwealth." However, Cole claimed that the immediate release of the 2005 survey results "could tend to encourage speculative and ill-informed public debate".