Government Response to the Report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce
Synopsis
On 3 May 2010, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation released the Government Response to the report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce – Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0.
Some key points from the Taskforce’s report include:
Government 2.0 or the use of the new collaborative tools and approaches of Web 2.0 offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve more open, accountable, responsive and efficient government.
Though it involves new technology, Government 2.0 is really about a new approach to organising and governing. It will draw people into a closer and more collaborative relationship with their government. Australia has an opportunity to resume its leadership in seizing these opportunities and capturing the resulting social and economic benefits.
Leadership, and policy and governance changes are needed to shift public sector culture and practice to make government information more accessible and usable, make government more consultative, participatory and transparent, build a culture of online innovation within Government, and to promote collaboration across agencies.
The report included 13 recommendations which are addressed in the Government Response.
Central Recommendation: A declaration of open government by the Australian Government
Accompanying the Government’s announcement of its policy response to this report, a declaration of open government should be made at the highest level, stating that:
* using technology to increase citizen engagement and collaboration in making policy and providing service will help achieve a more consultative, participatory and transparent government
*public sector information is a national resource and that releasing as much of it on as permissive terms as possible will maximise its economic and social value to Australians and reinforce its contribution to a healthy democracy
* online engagement by public servants, involving robust professional discussion as part of their duties or as private citizens, benefits their agencies, their professional development, those with whom they are engaged and the Australian public. This engagement should be enabled and encouraged.
The fulfilment of the above at all levels of government is integral to the Government’s objectives including public sector reform, innovation and using the national investment in broadband to achieve an informed, connected and democratic community.
AGREED. The Australian Government is committed to the principles of openness and transparency in Government, and a Declaration of Open Government is an important affirmation of leadership in these principles. A Declaration, in conjunction with the Australian Government’s proposed reforms to the Freedom of Information Act 1982, will also assist in driving a pro-disclosure culture across government. Accordingly, the Australian Government will draft a Declaration of Open Government for presentation to the Parliament, and through it, to the Australian people.
check it out at
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20report/index.html#recommendation-04
Note from reformwcc: WIRED NOT WEIRD!
The time has long come for a new paradigm in the community use of new information technology in relation to government decision-making and policy formation at all levels. The problem has been our decision makers have not acted on it in a timely manner.
During the 1990′s WCC Neighbourhood Committee 2 made submissions to Council for our community to be a wired community – making full use of the new information technology possibilities. These suggestions were treated as “weird” not “wired” by Oxley’s Wollongong City Council – which proceeded to spend tens of millions to improve the access of business to his fiefdom in the Burelli Street tower.
The ALP caucus also dominated Council during the 1990s – and they have demonstrated very clearly that their commitment is not to community empowerment.
We have also seen not an iota of initiative in this direction from the three technocratic Administrators happily running the show in Wollongong to comply with their out-of-town values and world view.
This old way of conducting community business actually works by blocking information and communication flows! A new paradigm works by removing those blockages and opening up life’s information flows.
Our communities did not get a look in. This resulted in people remote from our communities making ill-formed policy and equally ill-fitting decisions. We can no longer afford to operate in this inefficient manner.
Decision-making and policy formation must be re-centralised back into our local communities – into the places where we actually live with the consequences of those decisions and policies.
The bureaucrats are already moving to ensure that the government’s recommendation for them to make use of these new information technologies. A report from the latest Local Government Web Network Conference notes:
“As part of the Gov 2 Taskforce and the adoption of it’s recommendations by the previous Federal Government, steps have been taken to make real some of those recommendations. One of these inititatives is a private space for public servants of all levels of government to come together and share their experiences. This new Gov 2.0 Govdex Community is being hosted by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).”
While that is a good move – and worthy of being supported if it makes our public servants more attentive to our real needs – it must not be at the expense of including our communities into the Web 2 communication revolution.
After all, the knowledge, talent and expertise in our communities is the necessary ingredient to deal with the problems caused by the old paradigm which has unrealistic expectations about the abilities of elected representatives and bureaucrats to deal with the mass of information we are now faced with.
To creatively deal with community business we need a both-and approach – both elected reps plus bureaucrats AND an engaged communities.
That is, we need new paradigm thinking in which our communities are regarded as part of the form of governance organisation, not something external and ‘outside’ of it. We need to move the old paradigm thinkers into retirement, and promote those who understand the crucial importance on moving on these matters in order to face existing and emerging real life challenges.
Keep these considerations in mind when listening to the people putting themselves forward as candidates in the coming State election – are they fossil remnants of the old 20th century blocked way of doing things (and part of the problem) or are they new paradigm community enablers working to open up information and communication flows – that is, which makes us part of the solution?
