PM Anthony Albanese tried to bribe the Coalition last year to pass dodgy FOI laws which would have restricted the media and public accessing government documents.

Anthony Albanese was questioned in parliament about the matter last week, as per 2 videos below, and he ducked and weaved and refused to deny it.

In 2025 Albanese offered extra staff to the Liberal Party when he was negotiating with the then Liberal Party and Coalition leader Sussan Ley to pass Freedom of Information laws.

Jobs working for politicians are almost a currency that are traded as jobs for the boys and girls.

Friends and family working for politicians in Canberra is very common and many of those people are under qualified and over-paid in jobs paying anywhere from $100,000 to over $200,000.

So, Albanese offering the then Coalition leader Sussan Ley more staff is arguably in effect offering friends and family of the Coalition politicians high paying jobs worth $millions in total.

The FOI laws were an attempt to hide more government corruption and secrets by restricting FOI applications and making people pay for them.

The bribery attempt became public knowledge on the 5^th of March 2026 with a report in the SMH titled “Labor offered Coalition more staff to support dead FOI bill, says Bragg” which starts off:

Labor sought the Coalition’s support for its friendless push to restrict access to government documents by offering the opposition more staff, housing spokesman Andrew Bragg has said, just hours after the government ditched the bill before its inevitable failure in the Senate.

Bragg said the offer was made last year after Labor had slashed opposition staffing numbers following the May election, a move that was criticised by the Coalition and minor parties as an attack on transparency.

“Well, certainly the government had tried to do a deal with Sussan Ley to get our support for the FOI [bill] in exchange for the opposition getting more staff,” Bragg said on Thursday.

Bragg said the offer came under Ley’s tenure as opposition leader, and he denied that the government had made a similar offer since Angus Taylor was elected opposition leader last month. (Click here to read more)

Albanese ducking and weaving in parliament

During Parliament House Question Time on the 12 March 2026 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked a question about the matter at the 53:56 minute mark by the Member for Mackellar Dr Sophie Scamps as per the edited video below: (Click anywhere on the below video to watch)

The Member for Mackellar Dr Sophie Scamps asked a second question a few minutes later at the 1:06:23 minute mark as per the edited video below:

In the first video Albanese ducked and weaved and didn’t answer the question. In the second video Albanese basically did a runner and didn’t answer the question.

In both videos Albanese failed to deny the allegation.

Offering high paying jobs to pass legislation is in effect offering money to pass legislation which is bribery.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being able to dictate how many staff opposition parties get should be stopped so he can’t try to bribe anyone else in the future. An independent body needs to decide how many staff they get.

It makes you wonder what other financial inducements, using taxpayers money, Anthony Albanese has offered to get other legislation passed.

The whole scandal should be referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, but as we all know the NACC has been given the Albanese treatment and is a waste of time.

But while the NACC is failing, every time Albanese and Labor get exposed abusing the system, as per above, they lose more and more votes so ultimately, they will be held to account.

Admin: Sixteen weeks ago, I launched a campaign with a simple goal: find 200 new monthly supporters so I can keep doing this work as a fully independent journalist, running this website and the YouTube channel without corporate backing or paywalls.

Since then, 149 wonderful people have stepped up and become monthly supporters. That’s huge, thank you!

We’re now at 51 to go.

If you’ve been enjoying the work and aren’t yet supporting monthly, I’d be incredibly grateful if you’d consider joining them. Here’s the situation:

Like most independent journalists, I’m basically a one-person small business. Right now, a lot of us are feeling the squeeze, just like many small businesses and households are. To stay afloat and keep bringing you the reporting I do, I need roughly 200 more people chipping in whatever they can comfortably afford each month.

Anything from $3 to $100 (or whatever works for your budget) makes a real difference. There’s no lock-in, you can cancel or adjust anytime.

If that feels doable for you right now, you can see all the options on the donations page by clicking here.

Your support, whether it’s a monthly donation, a one-time donation, or just sharing the work, is what keeps independent voices like this one alive.

Please use Facebook, “X”, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.

Kangaroo Court of Australia is independent media and is 100% crowdfunded by readers like yourself so please support on the links below. Click on the PayPal button below to donate or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.

Thank you for your support.

For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.

For the Fugitive Clothing t-shirt shop click here

Join the free email subscription below and you will be notified immediately I publish new articles which is normally twice a week.