Minutes of the meeting of the
Open Government Forum
1.30-3.30pm, Thursday 22 February 2018
Attendees
Civil SocietyMs Fiona McLeod SC / Open Government Forum Co-Chair
Dr Ken Coghill / Accountability Round Table
Mr James Horton / Datanomics Pty Ltd
Mr Mark Zirnsak / Uniting Church in Australia
Ms Katherine Szuminska / OpenAustralia Foundation
Ms Serena Lillywhite / Transparency International Australia
Government
Mr Barry Sterland / Open Government Forum Co-Chair
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Ms Elizabeth Tydd / NSW Information Commissioner
Mr Matthew Goonan / Digital Transformation Agency
Ms Christine Johnston / National Archives of Australia
Ms Angelene Falk / Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Ms Sarah Chidgey / Attorney-General’s Department
Ms Kate Mills / Department of the Treasury
Ms Elizabeth Kelly / Department of Innovation, Industry and Science
Dr Louise O’Rance / Department of Finance
Ms Elizabeth Tydd / NSW Information Commissioner
Apologies
Ms Elizabeth Williamson / Division Head, Department of the TreasuryMr Peter Alexander / Digital Transformation Agency
Dr Stein Helgeby / Department of Finance
Mr James Christian PSM / NSW Aboriginal Land Council
Secretariat
Ms Lee Steel / Department of the Prime Minister and CabinetMr John Neil / Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Mr Alan Wu / Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Ms Ruth Chau / Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Welcome and confirmation of agenda
The Co-Chairs welcomed Forum members to the meeting and confirmed the agenda. Mr Barry Sterland, Deputy Secretary, Innovation and Transformation, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), was introduced as the new co-chair of the Forum, replacing Dr David Gruen.
New members were introduced.:
- Ms Elizabeth Kelly (replacing Mr David Hazlehurst) – Deputy Secretary, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
- Ms Sarah Chidgey (replacing Mr Iain Anderson) – Deputy Secretary, Attorney-General’s Department
- Ms Christine Johnson (replacing Ms Anne Lyons) – Chief Information Governance Officer, National Archives of Australia
- Ms Elizabeth Williamson (replacing Diane Brown) – Division Head, Department of the Treasury. Ms Kate Mills will be dialling in on behalf of Ms Williamson today.
Forum members were advised that Mr Timothy Pilgrim, Australian Information Commissioner and Australian Privacy Commissioner, would retire at the end of March. It was also announced that Mr Jonathon Hunyor, CEO, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, would be succeeding Ms Emily Howie as a civil society member of the Forum.
- Declaration of conflicts of interest
No conflicts of interest were reported.
- Actions arising from previous meetings
The Forum noted the completion of all action items arising from previous meetings.
PM&C reported on a meeting with the Finance Minister’s office. Civil society members reaffirmed the desirability of Ministerial engagement on open government issues.
- Update on Develop Ideas Phase
The Forum noted and discussedthe update on the ‘Develop Ideas’ phase of consultations.
Following consideration by Forum membersfrom 7-13 February, the discussion starters, which provided ideas of prospective themes and commitments for the next National Action Plan, were published. PM&C outlined that consistent with previous discussions of the Forum, the discussion starters were drafted in a way to generate discussion and ideas and so only broad suggestions for commitments had been included.
PM&C also advised that, regrettably, the period of planned consultation with key institutional civil society stakeholders on the discussion prompts did not proceed, due to timing constraints. These stakeholders were informed of the consultations prior to their commencement, and will have the opportunity to provide their views on measures for inclusion in the next National Action Plan both through online and face to face consultations.
PM&C also noted that feedback from stakeholders on ideas for inclusion in the next National Action Plan was not limited to the themes identified in the discussion starters, but could be on any matter that aligns with the Open Government Partnership values.
Forum members also raised a concern that the language on the website around approval of the discussion starters around the prospective themes could be confusing and should be revised. PM&C undertook to look at the website language and make any corrections required.
The following ideas for inclusion in the National Action Plan were raised by civil society members:
●access to information
●a national anti-corruption body
●better regulation of lobbyists
●disclosure of state agreements
●institution of a domestic version of the Magnitsky Act (USA 2012), which allows freezing of assets of foreign officials implicated in abuses of human rights that occur anywhere in the world
●enhanced due diligence processes to ensure the integrity of those firms applying for government contracts
●assurances of resourcing of investigation and enforcement capacity in regulatory bodies
●a continuation of the current Commitment 5.2
●measures to enhance trust in government
Government members noted that these ideas could be put forward within the existing proposed themes. PM&C undertook to capture ideas from the consultation process for discussion at the next Forum meeting where prospective commitments for the next National Action Plan would be discussed.
PM&C provided an update on online engagement from the preceding two weeks:
●Four Tweets so far have reached 14,716 people with an engagement rate of .7% (30 retweets, 12 replies, 27 likes and 32 clicks through).
●Two LinkedIn posts have reached 15,463 people with an engagement rate of .10%.
●PM&C also sent two emails to the OGP Australia email list of about 590 people, with a click through rate of 17.6%.
●Website statistics were not yet available.
●As of midday Wednesday 21 February, registrations for face-to-face consultations were:
○Canberra: 9
○Perth: 1
○Melbourne: 18
○Sydney: 9
○Brisbane: 10
PM&C noted that if the numbers for the Perth consultation didn’t increase, then face-to-face consultation would be cancelled.
Action Items:
●Civil society members to provide further input into proposed further discussion starters on ‘access to information’ and ‘trust in government’.
●PM&C to publish statistics for access to the OGP Australia consultations website, in light of industry benchmarks.
●Civil society members to provide ideas to PM&C on how to further promote online and face-to-face consultations, and leverage their networks to encourage participation in these consultations.
●PM&C to revise language on the OGP Australia website around who is putting forward ideas.
- Update on formation of communities of interest
The Forumagreed to the approach as outlined in the paperUpdate on formation of communities of interest for the development of communities of interest.
Key points raised included:
●the value of establishing communities of interest to promote the development of ideas, for example, on themes such as access to information and digital transformation
●considering opportunities to promote cohesion between commitments and building on achievements to maximise synergies, including through promoting the value of Australia’s Open Government National Action Plan and identifying the people and groups it serves.
- Update on report of the Independent Reporting Mechanism
Mr Daniel Stewart, Australia’s Independent Reporting Mechanism researcher, was scheduled to provide an update on his report. The report’s publication has been delayed by the International Expert Panel’s revision of the draft. PM&C will arrange for Mr Stewart to provide an update once the report has been finalised.
- Updates on Open Government Commitments
The Forum noted and discussed the updates on the status of Open Government commitments. The Forum’s attention was drawn to the concerns expressed in the documentHope and disappointment: Progress on Implementation of Australia’s National Action Plan, circulated in advance of the meeting to all Forum members by the Australian Open Government Partnership Civil Society Network.
The concerns in the document related especially to the Australia’s commitment under the OGP Declaration to Support civic participation. In particular, the Australian Open Government Partnership Civil Society Network view was that civic participation has been weak or absent in implementation many commitments.
The Forum agreed to the variation to the milestones and timelines as proposed for the first two milestones of commitment 4.1.
Action Items:
●Commitment 1.3: The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to provide an out of session update on the progress of Australia’s membership in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
●Commitment 4.1: The Department of Finance to provide further information on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017. Specifically, civil society members would like to discuss the impacts of the Bill on the ability of civil society organisations to freely advocate for changes to public policy.
- Other Business
Dr Ken Coghill provided an update on the OGP Asia- Pacific Leaders’ Forum that was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2017. He encouraged Australian Government Ministerial and senior public service representation at the OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi in July 2018. Other civil society members spoke of the desirability of including civil society representatives in the official national delegation to that event.
Dr Coghill also raised the matter of the relationship between the Australian implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the OGP, noting that a new parliamentary inquiry has been launchedby the parliamentary Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, the terms of reference of which concentrate on the foreign aid component of Australia’s commitments under the SDGs. PM&C undertook to engage with relevant areas and invite them to provide a ‘deep dive’ update for a future Forum meeting.
The next Open Government Forum meeting will be held on Thursday 12 April in either Melbourne or Sydney.
Action Item:
●PM&C to invite a government representative to provide a ‘deep dive’ update on Australian implementation of the SDGs relevant to OGP, especially the coordination between SDGs and OGP implementation, for a future Forum meeting.