news The Australian Government says it has restarted the process of joining the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – a global initiative that aims to get commitments from governments to increase transparency, empower citizens, reduce corruption, and use new technologies to strengthen governance.
In line with this commitment, a government statement says, a public consultation process commenced on 17 November to inform the drafting of the Australian Government’s National Action Plan as part of joining the partnership.
Although Australia had committed to join the OGP back in the spring of 2015, the government reconsidered and the plan was put under review.
“The government is considering its position on membership of the Open Government Partnership,’’ a spokesperson told The Australian at the time.
With the process under way once again, members of the Australian public are invited to contribute ideas and provide feedback on the framework for the Action Plan, which is due to be submitted to the OGP Steering Committee by July 2016.
The OGP was founded by the governments of Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2011, and now includes 69 member states.
Image credit: Office of Malcolm Turnbull
Open Government … from the least transparent government we’ve had in decades!
Hides as much of the NBN goings on as it can behind CiC!
Hides Rich Tax Dodgers from scrutiny!
Goes full big brother on us by tracking the heck out of our metadata!
Hides the boats by using Navy “operational matters” as a political shield
Introduced rules restricting public servants use of social media to shut them up
Tightened freedom of information procedures to limit information availability
Abolished the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner who managed FOI requests
I could go on but that is just what I can recall….
Don’t forget this gem:
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/01/detention-centre-staff-speak-out-in-defiance-of-new-asylum-secrecy-laws
With respect, a new leader is like a new government. I myself was very concerned about the direction we went under the previous Liberal leader, but I’m more interested in where we go to from here than beating up on unpopular, out of touch, irrelevant has-beens.
Still hoping we move back to a majority fibre NBN though…..
You haven’t been paying attention then, I’m afraid that TurnBull has been flogging mostly the same policies (after all these come from the party, not him), he’s just a much better salesman than Tony “wrecking ball” Abbott was.
Wow … just when I think the hypocrisy has plateaued … the government proves they’ve found a new level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopyRHHlt3M
Open government? What every government of any stripe pretends to be while doing the opposite.
Hey all, don’t forget this is actually a chance to improve things :) It’s easy to get caught up on all the issues, but I hope you all consider contributing ideas to the consultation as well. I left the tech private sector specifically to work on data.gov.au and to help make these kinds of open government initiatives happen and I know our community have a lot of awesome and important things to say that can improve our government, indeed our whole society.
The consultation is running for the next 6 months or so, so please think about specific actions you think the government should take in this space. You’ll be able to post specific ideas at http://ogpau.govspace.gov.au in stage two in a couple of weeks, plus there will be live events to contribute ideas and peer review the ideas of others.
Thanks all,
Pia Waugh
OGP National Action Plan Coordinator, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and lifelong geek trying to make things better from inside the belly of the beast :)
I want to be positive, but I just can’t manage it. I’ll read the website you’ve provided when I’m in a less cynical mind about the motives of our politicians.
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