ZEN INFORMATION

Open Government: Australia’s 2nd National Action Plan

Driving sector-wide action — ideas for the future

Here’s the submission I made on Australia’s draft NAP #2. It was done in a bit of a rush, to meet the deadline. But I think there are a few useful ideas for future NAPs — especially the need to reform data and information regulation; and the notion that Open Government can’t be driven from the centre or the sides. It needs buy-in from across the sector, so it has to be relevant to every agency’s mandate. Timely as we approach Right To Know Day. #RTK2023

Value of Open Government

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer notes that trust in Australia continues to decline across all four key institutions: media, business, government and NGOs. Australia now sits “just four percentage points above the world’s least trusting country, Russia.

Trust in media has fallen to a new all-time-low of 31 percent, and 60 percent of Aussies are disengaged with news from major organizations.” These are critical issues for government in general, and for digital government in particular.

The Open Government National Action Plan requires an aspirational vision and clear statement of policy intent committed to moving from ‘business as usual’ towards…