Page 2425 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 June 2011
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The government is in the final stages of developing the protocols and principles that will guide the release of this material. Again, questions of privacy and copyright, as well as matters of national and territorial security, will need to be taken into account as a part of these protocols. Whilst there will always be some restrictions here, the default position will be that government information becomes available to the community.
Over the coming months the government will also develop a knowledge map of government information, policies and accountability indicators for publication on the open government website. We will also progress development of the government’s knowledge management framework to assist ever more informed decision making and collaborative practice across government and the community. The knowledge management framework will also be accessible on the open government website.
Equally important to providing more government information to our community will be the further opening up of our own consultation process. I believe that any submission made to a public consultation process being managed by the government should be made public, unless the author specifically requests it not to be or there is a specific and valid reason to protect a submission.
In addition to this, we will review government consultant contracts to include the general assumption that reports to government will be made public. The intention here is to be clear from the outset that work commissioned by the government will, as a default position, be released to the community unless there is a specific and valid reason by the consultants that their work or elements of their work should not be released. The government’s overall policy will clearly be to make as much government information available online as possible and to open up new possibilities for the use of this information by the community.
In addition to these changes, I am keen to examine ways to make government processes more transparent. I would, for example, like to provide ways to inform the community about the challenges and issues being considered by cabinet. Whilst our thinking in this area is in its early stages, I think it is important to make some changes immediately.
As such, the government has decided that I will provide a weekly Chief Minister’s report on key issues discussed and decisions taken by cabinet. It is the intention that this will start in the first week of July, following the completion of this sitting fortnight. This summary document will be made public and uploaded onto the open government website for easy access by the community. Some caution will need to be taken to ensure we protect the integrity of cabinet processes but I think this will be a good first step to bring the community up to date with the range of issues being managed by the cabinet.
The cabinet regularly meets with the community, whether it be through our own individual portfolio work or as members of the community ourselves. We are all approached at the shops, at our children’s schools, by members of the community who are actively engaged and keen to put forward their views. Cabinet also has a regular
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