faulker03

Predicting the outcome of the Senate election is beyond me but apart from the Coaltion , Labor and The Greens , the Nick Xenophon Team is sure to be part of the new mix. Senator Nick Xenophon has spoken up and often on open transparent government, whistleblower protection and other issues such as a national anti corruption commission, political donations, full timely disclosure of use of parliamentary entitlements.... He is one of the few parliamentarians to even mention the Open Government Partnership. Here is what the NXT has to say prior to the election on Saturday: (Responses awaited to questions asked/commitments sought by Accountability Roundtable , Transparency International Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia )   We stand for: Honest and accountable government Looking after the national interest - not vested interests. Our core focus is: Predatory Gambling Australian Made & Australian Jobs Government & Corporate Accountability "Every thing we do as a t...

Election Initiatives Digital Rights Commissioner - "an independent Human Rights Commissioner for digital rights, to advocate for the online safety, accessibility, privacy and security of all Australians." Digital Democracy Trial a variety of digital platforms to increase participation in democratic processes. Democratic processes and institutions urgently need rejuvenation. Technology has made it easy for ideas to be widely circulated and debated, and for support and interest to be easily gauged. The ability to directly influence legislation and debate will strengthen participation in the political process and increase the legitimacy of the parliament. Use interactive technology to facilitate public participation in annual government budget-setting to determine priorities for new infrastructure and services as well as revenue raising measures. Strengthen links between the community and the parliament. Ideas can be raised on an online platform, and if enough support is...

It just appears to have chosen not to say much about these issues during the eight week campaign. Australian Labor Party 100 Positive Policies: Greater Budget Transparency   -a bigger more public role for Parliamentary Budget Office. National Information Policy Published in December 2015 includes passing now outdated references to Office of Australian Information Commissioner and Open Government Partnership. Recounts Labor initiatives in government prior to 2013 including Cutler Reportand Gov 2.0 Taskforce that "laid much of the groundwork for Australia’s current data infrastructure (eg data.gov.au)"  In summary: Pursue a new, national reform agenda - National Information Policy - to be pursued through a cross-sector Independent Data Council. Establish an Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) modelled on the data platform in operation in New Zealand that combines anonymised information from a range of organisations (eg health, education, crime data) to offer insights to poli...

Polic y positions of the Liberal National Coalition on open transparent government 1. Open Government Partnership No new policy. Existing Policy Committed to membership - "Goals of the OGP are consistent with Australia's long and proud tradition of open transparent government." OGP National Action Plan a work in progress. Comment: No response from Prime Minister to submission by Australian Open Government Partnership Network Chair Dr David Solomon to take up to four months to broaden discussion of reform commitments and establish a formal process to bring government and non government together in the true spirit of partnership to finalise the plan, monitor implementation, report on progress. 2. Open Data, Digital Services  New policy Better and More Accessible Digital Services  In summary: "The Coalition is investing $50 million to modernise myGov. Build on our ‘tell us once’ policy by providing Australians with greater control of their personal information. ...

The Australian Privacy Foundation Election Challenge-party responses to Ten Vital Privacy Issues cross-checked against their public platforms- presents a dismal outlook for the priority and approach they give to privacy protection . (They didn't bother asking about position regarding the 2009 Australian Law Reform Commission recommendation that political parties exemption from the Privacy Act should be removed- the response too predictable I imagine.) (Some omissions in original now corrected) In descending order of inadequacy, the best: The Pirate Party scored 95/100 on the Challenge . The Party has a very comprehensive platform , which is very positive on human rights and privacy issues, particularly in its heartland area of the digitally literate. The Party provided specific, clear and positive responses to the APF's Election Challenge . The Greens scored 94/100 . The Party remains close to the people who they represent. They have long had, and retain, an enligh...

No big news in the NSW budget for the Information and Privacy Commission with the allocation of funds for 2016-17, $5.46 million, close to the allocation last year. (See 7-35 in the Justice Cluster Budget Estimates .)  Nothing in there in the narrative or the numbers that might suggest a move after all these years from a part time to full time Privacy C ommissioner. The IPC Service Measures in the budget paper include estimates of the number of reviews and complaints the office will deal with and how many hits are expected on the website but nothing that goes to measures o f outcomes and results from all that activity during the year. Not alone there-its an area where the NSW public sector generally hasn't moved far in a long time. Over at the Finance Services and Innovation Cluster a lot of money for ITC and digital services, with Minister Dominell o highlighting data initiatives: The NSW Data Analytics Centre (DAC) has received $17 million over four years to continue it...

With Labor seeking to make the future of Medicare a central campaign issue, and the Prime Minister and other ministers adamant that Medicare will never be privatised, Freedom of Information is in the news. The PM and others assert that "Cabinet has not considered outsourcing any part of Medicare services."  While separately Sean Parnell and the Community and Public Service Union produce FOI decision notices refusing access to relevant documents regarding Medicare on the basis of the cabinet document exemption. The decisions cite different sections of the exemption. Parnell was denied access to parts of a letter from the Minister for Health to the Prime minister on the basis of S 34(1)(d) and s 34(3).  Reasons give n for the former claim are that parts of the document "contain information which is a draft of information ultimately included in a submission to Cabine t in relation to the payments contestability agenda," and for the latter, that disclosure would rev...

From the audience on ABC TV Q&A last night, M ark M c I ver asked Opposition Leader Bill Shorten about Labor's willingness to " trust the people' and " repeal those provisions of the Border Protection Legislation and any other legislation that have the potential to keep the truth from our citizens." In the lead in he quoted from the 1972 campaign launch when Gough Whitlam said  “The Australian Labor Party will build into the administration of the affairs of this nation that will prevent any government, Labor or Liberal, from ever again cloaking your affairs under excessive and needless secrecy. Labor will trust the people.”  Shorten's initial response reaffirmed Labor support for whistleblower reform and in subsequent exchanges he said he wanted more transparency about offshore detention facilities. "If I was Prime Minister it would have to be an amazing set of circumstances where we're not prepared to tell you what's going on,...