Uncategorised 14th September 2016

Fifth anniversary celebration of OGP in New York next week. Will Australia stand proudly for the cause?

by Peter Timmins

The fifth anniversary of the foundation meeting of the Open Government Partnership will be celebrated on 20 September at a gathering in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly during Leaders Week.

I’m not sure if Prime Minister Turnbull will be there at that time but presumably some ministers such as Minister for Foreign Affairs Bishop will be in New York.

Australia has yet to have a minister attend an OGP meeting having first announced our intention to join the OGP in May 2013 and the recommitment to do so in November 2015.

The fifth anniversary is an opportunity for words-a strong public statement of Australian support for the values, goals and principles of the OGP- and deeds, a visible high level public presence at a gathering to be hosted by current Lead Co-Chair President Jacob Zuma of South Africa who hands the Lead Co-Chair role to France.

Organisers expect at least ten heads of government to attend and high level representation from government and civil society representatives from the 70 current members of the OGP.

Let’s hope Australia proudly stands with them or at least lends strong voice to the open government cause on this occasion.

A gap in the Australian dialogue about content of our first OGP national action plan is a link with the Sustainable Development Goals.

More than 50 OGP member countries have signed the Joint Declaration for Open Government for the Implementation of the Agenda for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Australia hasn’t. New York next week is the place to fix this.

If any members of the Network will be in New York next week please take up this invite to attend the 20 September gathering and fly the flag.

Excuse the nostalgia- my first blog post, 21 September 2011, on why Australia should have been at the inaugural meeting in September 2011.