Page 1397 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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Omit subparagraphs (2)(d) to (h), substitute:
“(d) explore the copyright of ACT Government publications under creative commons licences;
(e) explore saving all information in formats which have open standards;
(f) explore the option of a competition for creative use of ACT Government datasets;
(g) investigate the use of information and communication technology to facilitate participatory democracy; and
(h) report back on these issues by the last sitting day in September 2011.”.
On behalf of the Chief Minister, the government is supportive of the broad sentiment of this motion, and we recognise that there are significant opportunities to be seized from providing greater access to a broad range of government information and publications. Those principles are outlined in a range of initiatives which the government has been pushing forward on over the last couple of years, and for that reason we remain committed to these principles of open access to government information, an understandable regime for its release and mechanisms to drive that approach.
There are, however, a number of issues of concern for the government in Ms Le Couteur’s motion, and those issues are addressed by my amendment. The issues of concern are the straightforward demand of Ms Le Couteur in her motion that certain things occur in a particular way, and basically occur straightaway.
The government believes that there are a range of implications that need to be properly considered before we can conclude that the steps Ms Le Couteur advocates should occur. As to providing for copyright of all publications under creative commons licences, we simply do not know what the implications are of doing that for all ACT government publications at this time, and it would be prudent for the government to understand those implications fully before agreeing to adopt such an approach.
Equally, the provision of information in formats which have open standards does have implications that we need to properly and fully understand, and before the government is prepared to adopt that approach we want to be able to understand those implications. So this is not an amendment seeking to object in principle to the matters being raised by Ms Le Couteur, but instead it seeks to make the point and to clarify that the government needs to undertake further work to understand the implications of the approaches Ms Le Couteur is suggesting before it is in a position to agree to it.
For that reason the government is moving the amendment which I have circulated. It simply asks the Assembly to agree that these are issues that need to be further investigated before a commitment can be given to adopt the approaches that Ms Le Couteur is suggesting. I think that is a sensible and not unreasonable request by
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