Australian Government response to Taskforce recommendations on Government 2.0

The Australian Government on 3 May 2010 in principle agreed (see www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20report/index.html) with 12 of 13 key recommendations recommended by the Government 2.0 Taskforce in their “Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0” report published in December 2009.

Of particular interest are the following three recommendations:

• 6.1 By default Public Sector Information (PSI) should be: Free; based on open standards; easily discoverable; understandable; machine-readable; freely reusable and transformable
• 6.2 PSI should be released as early as practicable and regularly updated to ensure its currency is maintained.
• 6.3 Consistent with the need for free and open reuse and adaptation, PSI released should be licensed under the Creative Commons BY standard as the default.

The Australian Government on 3 May 2010 announced that the Freedom of Information (Reform) Bill 2009 and the Information Commissioner Bill 2009 (the FOI Reforms) will create a new framework through which government information is published and managed.

The aim of the FOI Reforms is to create a new statutory officer, the Information Commissioner, who will be charged with reporting to the Cabinet Secretary on information policy.

Recommendations 6.1 and 6.2 will all be addressed in the guidelines on the Information Publication Scheme to be issued by the Information Commissioner under the legislation.

Recommendation 6.3, it is stated in the Government response, shall be consistent with, and retained in the, Attorney-General Departments copyright policy, which in turn will ensure that the IP Guidelines do not impede the default open licensing position proposed in recommendation 6.3.

In perspective

Interestingly the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce report was issued shortly after the US Open Government Directive in December 2009 and shows much greater promise – a point also noted by Andrea Di Maio in his blog on 3 May 2010.

The Australian Government’s positive response to the Taskforce report differs somwhat from the reactions of a number of US Federal Agencies. While US initiatives are skewed toward public authorities being in control of the type and direction of dialogue (through mechanisms such as IdeaScale and now FedSpace), the Australians seem to favour dialogue where it is most effective – for instance between employees and citizens and on and off government turf. Interesting in this regard are reports that Federal Agencies are struggeling to meet the Obama's Open Government Directive and particularly those authorities that do not regularly interact with the public are having a hard time coming up with viable implementation plans.

To assist authorties the National IT- and Telecome Agency in Denmark is currently developing a guide for public sector organisations on creative commons and how to share digital content (ie public sector data). The objective of the guide is to assist colleagues at all levels of government (ie local, regional and national) with the release of public sector data and to ensure that only some rights are reserved. Thus the Danish approach to copy and interlectural property rights of public sector data on the surface seem similar to the Australian.

The difference in the Australian and US focus may to some extent be linked to the Australian 2020 Summit. Launched in February 2008 by the Labour Government (under then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) Australia 2020 the public was consulted to help shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future – a strategy requiring long-term commitment and responses beyond the usual electoral cycle. More then 1000 opinion makers and citizens were invited to give their opinion and provide their input to help shape a long term strategy for the Australia’s future. More then 3600 persons and interest organisations submitted in excess of 8800 suggestions for evaluation and discussion culminating in the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra 19-20 April 2009.

In relation to the Australian Government 2.0 initiatives a number of the ten areas deemed particularly critical for Australia’s future are relevant. In particular the future of Australian governance: Renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. But also the productivity agenda – education, skills, training, science and innovation etc (see http://pep-net.eu/blog/2008/06/11/australia-2020-broadbased-consultation-on-the-future/ and www.australia2020.gov.au)