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A Daily Declaration probe into Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “Islamophobia” response has found that, across several government agencies, key work has either not begun or cannot be traced.

Two Commonwealth agencies named in the Albanese Government’s response to the Malik report have told The Daily Declaration, in formal Freedom of Information decisions, that they hold no record of work that the government indicated would be tasked to them.

A third department searched its own records and, on finding nothing, pointed The Daily Declaration to a different department. Five further requests remain open, with decisions expected across September and October.

The findings come six weeks after the government published Combatting Islamophobia — its official response to Special Envoy Aftab Malik’s 54-recommendation report.

Malik’s report was delivered to the Prime Minister in September 2025. It called for a review of the Australian Curriculum, an anti-racism framework embedded across schools and universities nationwide, an overhaul of counter-terrorism laws seen to target Muslims, and the introduction of behavioural codes of conduct for federal parliamentarians that would sanction “Islamophobic” speech, among other measures.

The government said in July it had adopted 35 of Malik’s 54 recommendations, but organised its response under four broad themes rather than confirming which specific recommendations it had accepted.

The Curriculum Question

The Daily Declaration lodged eight Freedom of Information requests in late July — to the Department of Education, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Social Services and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) — to confirm whether the measures announced in the government’s response had produced any documented activity.

ACARA, the body responsible for developing and maintaining the Australian Curriculum taught in schools nationwide, searched its records for correspondence about a curriculum review tied to the Malik report, and found nothing.

“ACARA has undertaken a thorough and diligent search and identified No documents within the scope of your request,” Executive Director for Curriculum Kathryn Tully wrote on 24 August.

The Department of Education, however, confirmed on 1 September that “a significant number of documents” exist concerning ACARA’s tasking for the curriculum review, and that officers spent considerably longer than the original ten-hour estimate reviewing them.

The substantive decision on what those documents contain is pending.

TEQSA gave a more pointed account of its own non-involvement in the government’s Islamophobia response.

Malik’s report had proposed TEQSA as a joint partner with the Department of Education in developing a single “anti-racism” framework to span schools and universities. The Daily Declaration asked whether any work toward that joint remit was underway. Its decision-maker replied that no such documents exist, before adding a personal note beyond the standard search finding:

I have had involvement in or oversight of TEQSA’s policy and research functions since 2025, including with regard to policy documents relating to anti-discrimination such as the Government Response. I am not aware of any relevant involvement by TEQSA in matters relating to primary or secondary schools. You may wish to direct your enquiries to the Department of Home Affairs or the Department of Education.

On the broader question of TEQSA’s involvement in the government’s Islamophobia response, the agency granted The Daily Declaration’s FOI request in full, but the documents it released shed no further light on that response.

‘Deliberate Obfuscation’ From Labor

The Department of Social Services (DSS) searched its records for any reference to the government’s Islamophobia response within the Modernised Multicultural Grants Program, including the specific grant lines GO8341 and GO8040. It found nothing.

“The Department searched its records… and did not identify any documents that include reference to the Australian Government’s response to A National Response to Islamophobia,” decision-maker Julie O wrote on 26 August.

Since DSS administers those grants on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs, a further request naming the two grant lines has since been lodged with Home Affairs, with a decision due in late October.

FamilyVoice WA Director Darryl Budge told The Daily Declaration that the government’s response to the Malik report should be understood in light of “Islam- and Gaza-related geopolitics that is drawing votes away from Labor in Western Sydney and other regions,” as highlighted by ABC News reporting in 2025.

“Labor is doing this go-slow reaction to Aftab Malik, in an attempt to placate the dramatic aspirations of the Islamic voting bloc,” Mr Budge said. “Their leaders have already reacted by demanding a wider endorsement from Labor.”

“However, Australians who support religious freedom will be rightly alarmed by the deliberate obfuscation from the Labor government, the lack of transparency and the inability of voters to discover what the government is even planning to do,” he added.

“The onerous cost of discovering their plans and the lack of publicly available detail means that we must pressure Mr Albanese and Mr Burke to reveal precisely what the Albanese Government is funding and pushing, especially as Malik’s sweeping blueprint means a dramatically altered Australia.”

Five of The Daily Declaration’s FOI requests remain outstanding, including the Department of Education’s substantive decision, and responses from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs.

Results are due from late September to October.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Eid Prayer at Lakemba Mosque.