According to press reports in Oz today, the reason why information about George Bush's service in the Air National Guard was not fully disclosed is that "rat excrement in the storage boxes made it hard to review the files".
On a par with the "great flood of 1965", "the office move from Whitehall to Bath" and other excuses offered by Sir Humphrey in pursuading Jim Hacker not to release material!
We've had FOI legislation in Oz for almost 30 years. In opposition, politicians wax lyrical about its benefits. In government however, most politicians go out of their way to thwart the objectives of the legislation. One of our national papers maintains a journalist full time in pursuing FOI requests through the tribunals and courts - often with interesting results that are then published for all to see.
Welcome to 'Open Government'.