[Osia-members] Open Government forum

Cameron Shorter cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Thu Mar 22 09:27:15 AEDT 2018


Hi Mark,

Thanks for the report. Which round table / forum are you talking about? 
Maybe this Open Government Australia National Action Plan consultation 
in Sydney yesterday?

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-government-australia-national-action-plan-consultation-sydney-registration-42482246543#

As you are aware, I've been taking an interest providing a response to 
Open Government, and I'm interested to know who else has been getting 
involved and who we should be collaborating with.

Warm regards, Cameron


On 22/3/18 8:40 am, Mark Phillips wrote:
>
> Well that was an interesting round table.
>
>
> In *summary* there was a strong call for three interrelated points
>
>
> 1.
>
>     There needs to be a independent corruption commission at the
>     federal level with full investigatory and prosecution powers.
>
> 2.
>
>     All decision making in the all government and the public service
>     must be fully transparent, and to that end;
>
> 3.
>
>     all decision making must be fully auditable and thus decision
>     makers can then be held accountable.
>
>
> In parallel to the anti-corruption commission, there was a also strong 
> interest in an independent whistle-blower commission with two major 
> independent streams.
>
>
> 1.
>
>     Whistle-blower support especially against retribution;
>
> 2.
>
>     Whistle-blower leads to be investigated and prosecuted by an
>     external party to the body(s) accused of corruption.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> *Privacy:*
>
> 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.
>
>
> There was fleeting mention of the successes of the previous round of 
> initiatives but no in depth discussion of these results.
>
>
> *Discussion*
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> *So why am I reporting this?*
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> Mark Phillips
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Osia-members at lists.osia.com.au
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Open Technologies Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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