29th March 2019
This Points of view was written by Peter Timmins In delivering the Jim Carlton Lecture to the Accountability Roundtable Terry Moran kicked off the debate with suggestions that include: a return to a public service able to provide frank advice to Ministers, formalising the role of Ministerial Advisers to make them accountable for their actions, thorough…
29th March 2019
This Points of view was written by Peter Timmins. There are plenty of references to open government related issues in the report that identifies as one of the imperatives for change, that: “the APS is too often perceived by stakeholders to be a closed book, reflecting a risk averse culture, reluctance to provide information…
30th January 2019
Four years ago then Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the nation “good government starts today” but that turned out badly, hopes rose with the arrival of Malcolm Turnbull in November that year but didn’t amount to much, and the words so far are yet to pass Scott Morrison’s lips. So how do we rate? On…
8th October 2018
The Grattan Institute paper Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics“ is a detailed analysis of government policy making, that finds “Powerful groups have triumphed over the public interest in some recent debates, from pokies reform to pharmaceutical prices, to toll roads and superannuation governance. Stronger checks and balances on policy influence are…
29th March 2018
The following personal comments about the recent consultation meetings organised by Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet are posted on the PMC website. Always interested in your views. …………………………………… Based on the Sydney meet that I attended and feedback from Canberra and Melbourne, the round of consultations was disappointing to put it mildly. Attendances were…
7th December 2017
Australia committed to undertake a review of existing compliance with the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) with a view to increase compliance, but to date there has been little public discussion, debate or action. Elsewhere open contracting is a hot anti-corruption topic as Sanjay Pradhan CEO OGP explained in remarks at Open Contracting Partnership conference…
4th September 2017
Following the publishing of our earlier blog on our call with the PM&C Task Force reviewing the recommendations of the PCDAU, we were pleased to receive feedback from Gemma Van Halderen, PM&C’s Task Force leader. While we have posted them in the comments to our original blog, we felt that reblogging an updated version incorporating…
15th June 2017
Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan (2016-18) is a series of reforms that include some ambitious commitments, that set the stage for potentially transformative outcomes for citizens. These include “transforming our information access laws, policies and practices are modern and appropriate for the digital information age”, “building public trust around data sharing and release”,…
9th June 2017
Interview published in OGP Newsletter June 2017 Faces of Open Government Australia | 8 June 2017 How did you get involved in open government – what is your personal story about why you joined the movement? I became aware of the Open Government Partnership the day after the inaugural meeting in New York on 20…
31st May 2017
When the Interim Working Group agreed to go ahead with a plan to establish a Multistakeholder Forum by the end of June, I said it would be ambitious. It’s still ambitious. And it’s still doable. From here, at least, it does look like it’s still on track. On Wednesday 17 May, Department of the Prime Minister and…