The Fyles Government has refused to release the travel costs of a senior public servant who once charged taxpayers to go to Disney World – and a former fifth floor staffer – because it claims that showing taxpayers where the pair travelled for a 10-month period would be an “unreasonable interference with the operations” of the Chief Minister’s department.

The move to block access to basic public information appears to breach the NT’s Information Act which was established in 2002 to “provide for public access to information held by the public sector”, including to show how the government spends the public’s money.

The refusal to release the travel records for the two public servants follows a previous release of travel documents late last year that sparked an ICAC investigation into former chief minister Michael Gunner.

In August, the NT Independent filed a Freedom of Information application seeking all travel records, costs, itineraries and “post-activity reports” for current Territory Investment Commissioner Andy Cowan, as well as current Fannie Bay Labor MLA Brent Potter when he worked as a ministerial staffer, among other documents.

The application, made under the NT’s FOI laws, was first delayed for more than two months while the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet twice requested more time to process the application “because additional searches are required to locate the information”.

However, the travel information requested is readily accessible in the NT Government’s so-called TRIPS database that is easily retrievable and has routinely been provided for years, with the records traditionally being returned at a reasonable cost.

On Tuesday, government “information officer” Jen Ah Toy claimed “processing” the application for Mr Cowan’s and Mr Potter’s travel between October 2021 and August 2022 would result in nearly two full-time weeks worth of work – or 75.95 hours – for the department.

“In any event, CMC consider that processing your application in its current form would be an unreasonable interference with the operations of the department,” Ms Ah Toy wrote without explaining how the department came to that conclusion.

The Opposition CLP said the Fyles Government’s refusal to release basic public information was “another blow” to democracy in the Northern Territory and further proof of a “hide from scrutiny” mentality by the government.

“The Fyles Labor Government resembles more of a dictatorship than a democracy, and this systematic dismantling of transparency processes like FOIs is another blow to Territorians,” Lia Finocchiaro said.

“The Fyles Government is arrogant and out of touch, has no regard for open and transparent government, and cannot be trusted.”

The NT Independent understands that both Mr Cowan and Mr Potter charged taxpayers to travel overseas to raise funding for Amphibian Aerospace Industries – the company that received $10 million of taxpayer money to purportedly set up an airplane manufacturing company despite never having assembled an aircraft before.

Both men were obligated to file “post-activity reports” to show Territorians why they travelled and what benefits the public received for it, but those reports were also blocked from release by the Fyles Government.

Mr Cowan previously charged taxpayers nearly $30,000 for a trip to the US in late 2019 that included a jaunt to Disney World in Florida. He later claimed the money for the Epcot Centre theme park trip was reimbursed by a private company that had been lobbying him for taxpayer money for the redevelopment of Jabiru.

The NT Labor Government has made sweeping changes to government accountability measures over the last six years, including removing the requirement for MLAs to report taxpayer-funded travel, discontinuing a campaign pledge to report all politician travel expenses and cutting the parliamentary scrutiny committee.

In 2019, a Guardian analysis found the NT had the highest rate of refused FOIs in the country, which an expert identified as the result of a “cultural problem” in the NT public service.

Late last year, the NT Independent fought for documents under FOI laws for eight months that ultimately revealed that then-chief minister Michael Gunner and his brother-in-law Ryan Neve had used taxpayer funds to travel and campaign at the 2020 NT election against caretaker provisions.

That eventually led to an ICAC investigation into Mr Gunner and Mr Neve. However, the NT Independent has not had documents requested through an FOI application provided since that time by the department and currently has formal complaints before the NT’s Information Commissioner.