This is the personal blog of Ian Ker, who was Councillor for the South Ward of the Town of Vincent from 1995 to 2009. I have been a resident of this area since 1985. This blog was originally conceived as a way of letting residents of Vincent know what I have been doing and sharing thoughts on important issues. I can now use it to sound off about things that concern me.

If you want to contact me, my e-mail is still ian_ker@hotmail.com or post a comment on this blog.

To post a comment on this blog, select the individual post on which you wish to comment, by clicking on the title in the post or in the list to the left of the blog, and scroll down to the 'Post a Comment' box at the foot.

Search This Blog

Friday, November 1, 2013

Open Government?

At both State (WA) and Federal levels, there seems to be at best an ambivalent attitude towards what is generally called 'open government'.

In a delightful piece of irony, Australia's near-neighbour, Indonesia, is about to take on the chairmanship of the Open Government Partnership (http://www.opengovpartnership.org), an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their government's more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Indonesia's Vice-President both addressed the OGP Conference in London, yesterday, 31st October 2013.

http://www.opengovpartnership.org
One of the objectives of the OGP is Defending space for civil society to engage, by which it means that for government to be responsive to people it is essential to have a vibrant and independent civil society that collaborates with and challenges government as necessary. 

I wonder if Tony Abbott or Colin Barnett have any idea what is wrong with their approaches of withholding information (for example on asylum-seeker arrivals, in the case of Tony Abbott) or removing existing rights to comment on government proposals (for local government amalgamations, in the case of Colin Barnett)?

If not (and I strongly suspect they do really know but are unwilling or unable to cope with differences of view), I am sure the Open Government Partnership would be willing to enlighten them.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)