OGP NAP (AU0014)

Objective and description: Australia will ensure that our Open Government National Action Plan is a platform for ongoing dialogue, collaboration and open government reform. We will do this by establishing a permanent dialogue mechanism with civil society, which includes a multi-stakeholder forum and transparent reporting and accountability mechanisms. The multi-stakeholder forum will at a minimum track the implementation of commitments, ensure commitments continue to be relevant and ambitious, inform the drafting of future National Action Plans and raise awareness about open government in the broader community. Status Quo: OGP countries are required to establish a multi-stakeholder forum to consult with the public and organisations outside of government on the implementation of the commitments included in their National Action Plan. Detailed guidance on establishing a multi-stakeholder forum is outlined in the OGP’s handbook. OGP countries have taken different approaches to establishing their multi-stakeholder forum. Some models adopted in other countries include: Civil society network: Coalition of non-government organisations and individuals. • Single forum: Convenes government, the public and organisations outside of government in one formally established, central committee for co-ordination. • Hub-and-spoke: Network of smaller forums (broken down by sector, thematic area or commitments etc.), which may be coordinated by a central committee. The Government will work in partnership with civil society to determine the structure, role, governance and membership of the OGP multi-stakeholder forum. It will also include reporting and accountability mechanisms, and procedures around decisionmaking. The Interim Working Group will continue as an oversight body for the implementation of this National Action Plan until the permanent multi-stakeholder forum is established. Membership of the forum will need to be broad given the diverse interests in open government. Stakeholders have noted through the public consultation that the existing Interim Working Group does not have representation from local government, the disability sector, privacy sector, Indigenous community, and industry/business groups. The forum will also need to facilitate broader engagement with the general public. It is also important that Australia’s commitments remain relevant and ambitious throughout the National Action Plan cycle. This will be achieved through ongoing review of milestones, with updates made (as necessary) in partnership with civil society. The Government will also work with the public to identify any additional commitments that could be included in the National Action Plan over the two year cycle. Ambition: To identify, develop and implement ambitious open government commitments through ongoing partnership with civil society. This will include transparent reporting on progress of implementing commitments in this National Action Plan. Relevance: This commitment will advance the OGP values of public participation and accountability by: ensuring commitments remain relevant and ambitious throughout the National Action Plan cycle; keeping government accountable for the implementation of National Action Plan commitments; raising awareness about the Open Government Partnership and open government matters in Australia and the region; and ensuring participation by a broad and diverse range of organisations and the public in the development of National Action Plan commitments.

14. Delivery of Australia’s Open Government Action Plan

Commitment Text:

Australia will ensure that our Open Government National Action Plan is a platform for ongoing dialogue, collaboration and open government reform.

We will do this by establishing a permanent dialogue mechanism with civil society, which includes a multi-stakeholder forum and transparent reporting and accountability mechanisms.

The multi-stakeholder forum will at a minimum track the implementation of commitments, ensure commitments continue to be relevant and ambitious, inform the drafting of future National Action Plans and raise awareness about open government in the broader community.

[…]

Milestones

1. Establish the OGP multi stakeholder forum by partnering with civil society to determine its structure, role, governance and membership, including reporting and accountability mechanisms for this National Action Plan.
   
2. Operation of the multi-stakeholder forum, with (at a minimum) the following responsibilities:
   1. inform the co-creation of future National Action Plans;
   2. track and report on implementation of National Action Plan commitments;
   3. facilitate broader community engagement and conduct awareness activities that foster informed participation, including face-to-face meetings and events; and
   4. document decisions and publish reports.
      
3. Review the National Action Plan and update milestones and commitments (as necessary) to provide further clarity and ambition for plan.

Responsible institution: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Supporting institution(s): All Commonwealth entities, non-government organisations including Australian Open Government Civil Society Network), private sector, peak bodies (including Law Council of Australia) and the public

Start date: December 2016 End date: July 2018

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text, see the Australia National Action Plan available at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Australia_NAP_2016-2018_0.pdf

Context and Objectives

This commitment will establish a multi-stakeholder forum to oversee implementation and development of Australia’s national action plans.

Under the OGP Guidelines for Public Consultation on Country Commitments, countries ‘are to identify an existing or new forum to enable regular multi-stakeholder consultation on OGP implementation’.[1] The national action plan commits Australia to working with civil society to determine the appropriate structure, role, governance and membership of that forum. It also recognises the need for any forum to be sufficiently representative of the wide range of interests in open government and to facilitate broader engagement with the general public. Members of the interim working group, as well as a number of individuals and civil society organisations, were critical of the lack of representativeness of the participants in the development of the national action plan.[2]

The commitment is of medium specificity. The commitment sets out the role of civil society in establishing the forum and minimum responsibilities. However, it does not establish how civil society, or other sectors including the business or private sector, will be engaged as a partner in the forum’s development and ongoing role in monitoring and developing Australia’s open government commitments. Similarly ongoing reform of the role of the forum is not set out.

The forum is likely to have a moderate impact. As the development of Australia’s first national action plan demonstrates, there are a large number of individuals and groups interested in open government reforms who are reliant on ad hoc opportunities to participate in reform. The forum will present an ongoing opportunity for civil society groups and individuals to cooperate with government to ‘identify, develop and implement ambitious open government commitments’. Both the development and intended operation of the forum will allow civil society organisations and individuals interested in open government to contribute to developing commitments under the current and future national action plans, either through membership of the forum or through raising community awareness. The forum is also intended to provide for oversight of the implementation of action plan commitments. There is, however, no formal means of complaint or redress provided where agencies are identified as not meeting their OGP commitments other than through publication of reports. There are also no formal monitoring powers provided; under its terms of reference the forum will ‘receive regular updates on implementation of Australia’s Open Government Commitments, and be able to make requests for relevant information’ from the agencies involved.[3] The Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet (PM&C) provides secretariat and financial support for forum.

Completion

The consultation process leading up to development of the Open Government Forum is discussed above in section 3.4 Consultation During Implementation.[4]

Milestone 14.1: This milestone was fully implemented. A 15-week process to decide on the appointment and operation of the forum, now referred to as the Open Government Forum, began in April 2017. It consisted of inviting submissions on a proposal put forward by the interim working group established as part of the development of the national action plan, a Twitter Q&A session and a public information session (parts of which were livestreamed online) held in Melbourne.[5]

As a result of that consultation process and recommendations put forward by the interim working group, the co-chairs of the interim working groups opened a call for nominations for civil society positions on the Forum on 8 June 2017.[6] A selection panel, consisting of the co-chairs of the interim working group and a member of civil society put forward by the interim working group, considered 25 nominations on the basis of:

• their demonstrated support of OGP’s vision and the Open Government
  Declaration
• their expertise relevant to the Open Government Partnership, including
  existing or probable future Australian Open Government commitments
• their ability to engage broad and diverse community networks
• their previous experience working with and influencing government
• the desirability of maintaining some continuity between successive Forums,
  balanced with the desirability of reaching new communities and reflecting
  emerging open government priorities.[7]

Appointments to the Forum were announced on 21 July 2017 and the first meeting was held on 28 July 2017.[8] The Forum consists of representatives from eight government agencies and eight members from civil society, and is co-chaired. Ten male and six female members were appointed, including at least one with an indigenous heritage.[9] The members drawn from civil society act in a variety of capacities in non-government organisations as well as being individuals with an interest in areas related to open government. A non-voting jurisdictional member, the current New South Wales Information Commissioner, was also invited to participate in the Forum. Four of the six civil society members of the interim working group were appointed to the Forum. In addition, the government agencies represented in the interim working group, with the addition of a representative from the Digital Transformation Agency, continued to be represented on the Forum.

The Forum expects to meet approximately every two months. The meetings will be held in Canberra although they may be held in other locations with provision for online participation. The Forum may also live-stream important proceedings and trial other methods of engagement.

Milestone 14.2 saw limited implementation during the period under consideration. One of the purposes of the Forum is to monitor implementation of the national action plan, including assessing and reporting on progress.[10] As part of this process the first meeting included representatives of government agencies with responsibility for commitments under the action plan. The PM&C also established an online dashboard to record progress towards each of the commitment milestones. The dashboard, which was made publicly available after the first meeting of the Forum,[11] allows for public comments on each of the commitments. PM&C intends to update this dashboard every two months in conjunction with a meeting of the Forum.[12]

The Forum also has purposes related to developing future national action plans, including facilitating broad community engagement and raising awareness about open government generally, as well as seeking to improve government institutions through enhanced transparency, policy development, service delivery and decision making.[13]

The development of the Forum was delayed beyond its original start date of March 2017, with the first meeting of the Forum not being held until 28 July 2017, and the next meeting not planned until October 2017. The agenda and other papers considered by the Forum at their first meeting[14] and minutes from that meeting[15] were made available on the government OGP website.

Interviews with PM&C suggest that, in part, the delay in establishing the Forum was due to a more extensive form of consultation and selection process then was originally envisaged.[16] Most civil society representatives interviewed for this report commented favourably on the consultation process leading up to establishment of the Forum, subject to the concerns that further steps could have been taken to increase awareness of the process.[17]

The Open Government Forum which has been formed under this commitment largely replicates the composition of the Interim Working Group established as part of the development of the national action plan, with some additional government and civil society members. Some individuals interviewed indicated that the establishment of the Forum gave rise to many of the same concerns as the establishment and operation of the Interim Working Group – namely that awareness of the development of the Forum was limited, as established it fails to reflect a broad range of interests, particularly those not directly concerned with open government in itself rather than broader community needs, and that its ability to influence government decision making and to increase public awareness of the OGP process is therefore limited.

Although the Forum has no formal authority to influence implementation of the national action plan, its membership includes high-level representatives, including at the Deputy Secretary level,[18] from the government agencies most directly responsible for implementing the commitments. The responsibility for increasing public awareness remains largely with the non-government members of the Forum, even though they have been appointed in their individual capacities rather than as representatives of any organisation or range of interests. Most people interviewed commented favourably on the individuals, both from government and non-government, who are members of the Forum and the range of expertise and interests they represented. According to a CSO stakeholder interviewed, the frequency and duration of meetings, however, as well as questions over the resources available to support the work of the Forum, may limit its capacity to achieve its broader objectives of raising awareness and ensuring the ambition of current and future commitments.[19]

Milestone 14.3: was not started during the period under review.

Early Results (if any)

The delay in establishing the Forum has meant that there is limited evidence of its influence so far. Some government agencies interviewed for this report commented on the role of the Interim Working Group in influencing implementation of other commitments. In particular, the Interim Working Group’s guidance for agencies, which was also adopted by the Forum in its first meeting,[20] has influenced the scope of consultation engaged in as part of other commitments under the national action plan, or as helping to raise awareness of the OGP process within government. In interviews in preparing this report, most representatives from agencies responsible for implementing commitments indicated that they had seen the guidelines or otherwise were aware of the ongoing role of the Interim Working Group (now the Forum).

Next Steps

The Forum, apart from being an important element of Australia’s commitments to OGP, promises to fulfil an important role in bringing together government and civil society. The functions and operation of the Forum should continue to develop as it meets over the remainder of this action plan cycle and begins work on the next action plan. While that development need not be reflected in a commitment in the next action plan, consideration could be given to:

• Enhancing the ability of non-government members of the Forum to increase awareness of open government initiatives and benefits and to reflect a broader range of interests in the OGP process. This could be achieved by involving Forum members in consultation or collaborative processes being engaged in by government agencies under both existing commitments and other developments.
• Developing a greater role for the Forum in coordinating open government efforts, either as reflected in the national action plan or more generally, including:
  • Identifying opportunities and potential benefits of increased cooperation or coordination between government agencies and civil society groups in fulfilling existing commitments;
  • Representation on other consultation forums or coordination bodies within government.
• Clarifying the role of government representatives of the Forum in raising awareness of open government initiatives beyond the individual commitments in question, including bringing together views from other government departments that are not directly represented on the Forum.
• Developing links with open government initiatives by State and Territory Governments, perhaps by convening an annual meeting between Forum members and representatives from those governments.
• Working with government at the federal, state and local levels to raise the capacity of civil society groups to engage on open government initiatives.

Commitment 14. Delivery of Australia’s Open Government Action Plan

Commitment Text:

Australia will ensure that our Open Government National Action Plan is a platform for ongoing dialogue, collaboration and open government reform.

We will do this by establishing a permanent dialogue mechanism with civil society, which includes a multi-stakeholder forum and transparent reporting and accountability mechanisms.

The multi-stakeholder forum will at a minimum track the implementation of commitments, ensure commitments continue to be relevant and ambitious, inform the drafting of future National Action Plans and raise awareness about open government in the broader community.

[…]

Milestones

1. Establish the OGP multi stakeholder forum by partnering with civil society to determine its structure, role, governance and membership, including reporting and accountability mechanisms for this National Action Plan.
2. Operation of the multi-stakeholder forum, with (at a minimum) the following responsibilities:
   1. inform the co-creation of future National Action Plans;
   2. track and report on implementation of National Action Plan commitments;
   3. facilitate broader community engagement and conduct awareness activities that foster informed participation, including face-to-face meetings and events; and
   4. document decisions and publish reports.
3. Review the National Action Plan and update milestones and commitments (as necessary) to provide further clarity and ambition for plan.

Responsible institution: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Supporting institution(s): All Commonwealth entities, non-government organisations (including Australian Open Government Civil Society Network), private sector, peak bodies (including Law Council of Australia) and the public

Start date: December 2016               End date: July 2018

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text, see the Australia National Action Plan available at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Australia_NAP_2016-2018_0.pdf

 Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to establish a multi-stakeholder forum to oversee implementation and development of Australia’s national action plans. Specifically, it sought to bring together government representatives and individuals from civil society to determine the structure, role, governance, and membership of the forum, and to ensure that the forum is sufficiently representative of the range of interests affected by open government initiatives. Both the development and intended operation of the forum was intended to allow civil society organisations and individuals interested in open government to work with government in developing and monitoring implementation of commitments under the current and future national action plans.

Status

Midterm: Limited

This commitment was completed to a limited degree by the midterm of the first national action plan. A 15-week process to decide on the appointment and operation of the forum began in April 2017, including an open call for nominations for civil society positions. However, milestone 1 was not completed until after the midterm of the first national action plan as appointments to the Forum were announced on 21 July 2017 and the first meeting was held on 28 July 2017. See the midterm Progress Report for more details on the consultation process and the composition and expected operation of the Forum.

End of term: Complete

Including its first meeting (milestone1), the Forum met seven times from July 2017 through to the end of the implementation period of the first national action plan in July 2018 (milestone 2). [194] Meetings were generally held in Canberra, with one each in Sydney and Melbourne and one by teleconference. An agenda and meeting papers were available approximately one week prior to the meeting, and minutes of the meeting were posted afterwards. [195] Reports on progress on the various commitments were tabled at each meeting, and reported on the commitment dashboard established on the Open Government Forum website. [196] The Forum also approved and oversaw the process to develop the second national action plan (milestone 3). [197]

Did It Open Government?

Civic Participation: Major

Prior to the establishment and operation of the Forum, there was no central or uniform approach to providing opportunities to civil society members or the public generally to inform or influence government decisions. Members of the Forum, in interviews for this report, indicated that the government representatives on the Forum have been open to suggestions and honest in their feedback relating to potential government support of future initiatives. [198] Members of the Forum were able to act as channels through which the views of a broader range of civil society groups and individuals could be presented to government. [199] The Forum represented a continuing opportunity to understand the broader context faced by a wide range of government agencies and programs and to work closely with them in developing and monitoring open government initiatives. [200] It therefore presented a major change in government practice in relation to civic participation in open government initiatives.

Some government agencies interviewed for the midterm progress report commented on the role of the Interim Working Group and Forum in influencing implementation of commitments. In particular, the Interim Working Group’s guidance for agencies, which was also adopted by the Forum in its first meeting, [201] was considered by some agencies in the scope of consultation engaged in as part of their commitments under the national action plan. It also assisted in helping to raise awareness of the OGP process within government generally. In interviews for the midterm Progress Report, many representatives from agencies responsible for implementing commitments indicated that they had seen the guidelines or were otherwise aware of the ongoing role of the Forum. [202] However, the forum’s access to government had limitations in scope. Not all government initiatives relevant to open government, even those directly relevant to commitments under the national action plan, were disclosed to the forum (e.g., establishing a Commonwealth Integrity Commission discussed in Commitment 12).

Carried Forward?

Australia’s second national action plan continues the operation and role of the Forum in monitoring implementation of the plan. [203]

The second national action plan includes a commitment to enhancing state and territory participation in OGP. [204] This new commitment is relevant to one of the recommendations of the midterm Progress Report to enhance the operation of the Forum; namely to develop links with open government initiatives by state and territory governments.

This new commitment includes facilitating administrative arrangements between state and territory governments and Commonwealth government officials to support collaboration and learning on open government matters. It might be anticipated that the Forum could take an active role in developing and supporting those arrangements. The future commitment will also conduct surveys on awareness of government information access rights, which will inform the future role of the Forum in facilitating broader community engagement and conducting awareness activities.