What is the public interest?

The public interest in Australian law and policy is the welfare and well-being of the community as a whole, as distinct from narrow private interests. The concept is used in many specific legal and policy contexts, including freedom of information decisions, broadcasting regulation, competition law, foreign investment review, environmental approvals, and the regulation of lawyers and other professions.

Several specific tests apply. In FOI law, agencies can refuse access where disclosure would be contrary to the public interest, with a balancing test weighing factors including accountability, transparency, deliberative processes, personal privacy, and commercial interests. In broadcasting and media regulation, public interest tests apply to programme standards, advertising restrictions, and the spectrum allocation process run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. In foreign investment review, the Foreign Investment Review Board applies a public interest test to major foreign acquisitions of Australian assets.

In competition law, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission considers the public interest when authorising or denying mergers and anti-competitive conduct under section 50 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, weighing benefits to consumers and the economy against potential harm from reduced competition. In environmental approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, ministers consider the public interest in balancing development and environmental protection.

Public interest also operates in journalism and whistleblowing. The Defamation Acts (harmonised across states from 2006 and updated in 2021) include a public-interest defence allowing defamatory statements to be made without liability if they are on a matter of public interest and the defendant reasonably believed publication was in the public interest. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) and equivalent state laws protect whistleblowers who disclose wrongdoing on the basis of public interest. Lawyers operate under public interest obligations through their professional conduct rules and the role of the officer of the court. The concept of public interest is deliberately broad and context-dependent, allowing different decision-makers to balance competing concerns in different situations while always keeping the community as a whole in view.