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</head><body><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Well that was an interesting round table.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">In <strong>summary</strong> there was a strong call for three interrelated points</p><p style="margin-left: 1.25cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">There needs to be a independent corruption commission at the federal level with full investigatory and prosecution powers.</p></li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">All decision making in the all government and the public service must be fully transparent, and to that end;</p></li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">all decision making must be fully auditable and thus decision makers can then be held accountable.</p></li></ol><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">In parallel to the anti-corruption commission, there was a also strong interest in an independent whistle-blower commission with two major independent streams.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Whistle-blower support especially against retribution;</p></li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Whistle-blower leads to be investigated and prosecuted by an external party to the body(s) accused of corruption.</p></li></ol><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">This was raised in relation to a large billion procurement program that ws reported as having corrupt elements. The existing reporting and investigation method resulted in ombudsman referring the corruption to the body that was involved. This is still ongoing court actions at the federal level. From the group discussion it was apparent that yes there were some serious questions around the conduct of the initial investigation. And yes there was some VERY senior people both from the judiciary and international lobby groups at my table.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><strong>Privacy:</strong></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Data-mining and psychometric analysis is a big concern regarding privacy and manipulation of opinions. However there was no clear suggestions on how to deal with it with the telling comment being Australia is too small to pressure those multinational companies partaking in the Industry to back off. This point was raised so as to ensure the Open Government Forum was aware of the concerns held.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">There was fleeting mention of the successes of the previous round of initiatives but no in depth discussion of these results.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><strong>Discussion</strong></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">The fundamental point made throughout the discussion was that the public service, including all levels of government, are there to act in the public interest. There is the belief that this is not necessarily the case and it is gradually getting worse.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">It was pointed out that there is a view by the government that the public should trust the government to do what is right. The counter argument was that it was the governments responsibility.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><strong>So why am I reporting this?</strong></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Mostly because I don’t think that OSIA as a specific industry body will gain much influence of policy in this forum simply due to our narrower focus. Procurement came up as part of the corruption discussion. Tendering came up as part of the transparency and the audibility/accountability discussion. The forum continually referred back to Amit-corruption and transparency as major talking points.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">This is not to say that we should not publish anything. What I’m saying we need to focus specifically on those issues we see as important for the industry and relating them to the main three points above.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;">Mark Phillips</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;"><br></p></body></html>