Positive news: Canberra breaks long public silence since April
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet yesterday posted the statement below on the Wiki, the first public announcement since April on preparation of Australia’s OGP national action plan. Several points the Steering Committee has made to government on behalf of the Network in recent months- the need for more time, more scope, more ambition- are reflected in the statement, a big improvement on what the Liberal Party said in correspondence during the election campaign which made no reference to any of this, simply that the plan would be finalised in July.
“The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) will be seeking to further engage with the public, civil society organisations and other interest groups over the course of August and September to finalise the Australian Government’s 2016 National Action Plan (NAP) to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) by the end of October 2016.
Building on the consultations and work that took place in the first half of 2016, we are eager to continue working together to settle a set of commitments that not only meet government and civil society’s objectives, but also meet the core OGP requirement that the NAP be developed publically and transparently in a spirit of genuine partnership.
We hope to use this process to jointly review the key proposals put forward through the initial workshops and to identify new proposals where appropriate. It will also allow us to take account of the outcomes from the United Kingdom Anti‑Corruption Summit held in May 2016 and other countries NAPs as appropriate, to raise the overall aspiration of the Plan.
Further details will be provided shortly on the form of these consultations and engagement. We would welcome suggestions from interested parties.”
We have been in touch with PM&C at a senior level.
On the last point in the statement, they are still considering how best to proceed.
The one definite is the deadline- to complete the plan by the end October. However an associated goal is to set things up for the medium and long term future.
The way ahead
The Steering Committee has sought input from members of the Network on process and will provide feedback to PM&C early next week.
If you are reading this but are not a member, please consider joining.
The Wiki and the ‘co-creation’ workshop in Canberra for those who could attend on 10 April didn’t start or end the first attempt at government-civil society partnership satisfactorily.
The Steering Committee as previously advised put on the table some time back that a co chaired committee of government and non government representatives should be part of the picture- necessary but not sufficient perhaps.
Another approach is the co -chaired working groups model followed in the UK.
In their case around these themes:
Access to Information
Anti-corruption
Civic participation
Open data
Public accountability
Officials in Canberra seem aware of the need to lift the sights from the narrow micro issues that came from government departments in the earlier phase of development of the plan.
With voter disillusion and lack of trust a takeaway from the election, our leaders should connect the dots to the OGP which opens the door for ambitious “commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.”
We have brought to attention in Canberra also what we saw as a failing in Round 1 of the consultation: that the public service felt it necessary to stay within the bounds of existing policy whereas those outside suggested ambitious commitments that would involve a shift in policy. With regard to the latter, we have no idea what public servants put to the PM or other ministers and there had been no opportunity to engage at that level, to put the case, and if the PM was inclined to reject some proposals, to hear why.
See the suggestions floated in Canberra on 10 April.
The Steering Committee welcomes the decision to take extra time to develop and finalise the plan, to refresh engagement with civil society and to broaden the scope beyond government’s initial unilateral choice of themes, improving public services and more effectively managing public resources.
We look forward to working with government, to quote PM&C, “in a spirit of genuine partnership.”