Hi everyone
As some of you are probably aware the Australian Government recently signed up (after a long delay under previous PMs) to joining the Open Government Partnership. Read Turnbull's letter to this effect here.
Now the work has started to develop our National Action Plan (NAP). Each country in the partnership has to have one of these and be accountable for meeting the goals in it.
Other countries' NAPs contain a whole lot of recordkeeping stuff, from improved recordkeeping in government to more responsive FOI, and declassification. There are also substantial streams on open data and civic/government engagement. See, for example, the United States' latest plan.
There are a number of ways to get involved in the development of Australia's first National Action Plan;
- there is a wiki for the OGP Australian Government NationalAction Plan where you can make submissions and contribute ideas
- a live streamed event will be held in Canberra in February 2016 to air ideas, discuss and peer review approaches, and collate a body of input to the consultation. You need to subscribe to the OGP Au mailing list to indicate your interest in attending
- an informal network of interested citizens and groups has formed - the Australian Open Government Partnership Network. This is a national coalition of organisations and individuals is gearing up to respond to the Federal Government’s invitation to engage on issues concerning how to make government work better, focusing on transparency, open government, citizen participation and technological innovation. The Convenor is Sydney based FOI activist Peter Timmins. Find out more here: http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/media-release-australian-open.html#.Vm89VEp97cs
Cassie Findlay
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