Access to Information (AU0020)

Engage States and Territories to better understand
information access
Commitment Start and End Date
September 2078-August 2020
Lead implementing agency/actor
Information and Privacy Commission NSW on behalf of Commonwealth. State and Territory Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen. and supported by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
Under Australia's federal system of government. responsibilities are shared between different levels of government. To date. participation in the Open Government Partnership has occurred primarily at the federal government level.
There is significant work underway at the state and territory level that contributes to the development of a culture of government openness. enhanced levels of transparency and greater public accountability. The right to access government information is independently oversighted by the Commonwealth. State and Territory Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen.
Currently, there is no consistent mechanism to enable an assessment of awareness of the right to access government information and experiences in exercising that right at each level of government.
What is the commitment?
This commitment will better provide for subnational participation in the Open Government Partnership process to build understanding of information access frameworks. We will achieve this by:
l. facilitating administrative arrangements between state and territory governments and Australian Government officials responsible for Australia's Open Government commitments to support collaboration and learning on open government matters (including highlighting the opportunity for formal subnational cooperation and membership in the Open Government Partnership). and
2. engaging with Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen to seek agreement to conduct surveys to measure citizens· awareness of the right to access government information. and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. These surveys will inform activities to promote and support the right to access government information
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
Wewill promote fuller participation in the Open Government Partnership by Australian states and territories (providing greater opportunities to enhance government transparency and accountability), and, in particular, enhance understandings of how the right to information access is experienced by Australians.
Why is the commitment relevant to OGP values?
By facilitating greater participation in the Open Government Partnership process by state and territory governments, this commitment will advance all the OGP values.
In particular, by better measuring the value citizens place on the right to access government information, and their awareness of, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. This commitment will advance the OGP value of access to information.
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Administratively engage state and territory governments to raise awareness of the Open Government Partnership, support collaboration and learning on open government matters, and highlight the opportunity for formal cooperation and subnational membership.
7/1/2018 – 12/31/2018
Engage with state and territory information commissioners to: agree to the design of a survey to measure the value citizens place on the right to access to information and their awareness of, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right.
7/1/2018 – 12/31/2018
Conduct survey
1/1/2019 – 9/30/2019
Analyse and publish results of survey
7/1/2019 – 12/31/2019
Contact Information
Contacts: information and privacy commission NSW
Email and phone
Elizabeth.tydd@ipc.nsw.gov.au
Other Actors
State and Territory Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Accountability Round Table, Australian Open Government Partnership Civil Society Network

5. Engage States and Territories to better understand information access

Commitment Text:

This commitment will better provide for subnational participation in the Open Government Partnership process to build understanding of information access frameworks. We will achieve this by:

1. facilitating administrative arrangements between state and territory governments and Australian Government officials responsible for Australia’s Open Government commitments to support collaboration and learning on open government matters (including highlighting the opportunity for formal subnational cooperation and membership in the Open Government Partnership), and
2. engaging with Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen to seek agreement to conduct surveys to measure citizens’ awareness of the right to access government information, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. These surveys will inform activities to promote and support the right to access government information.

Milestones:

• Administratively engage state and territory governments to raise awareness of the Open Government Partnership, support collaboration and learning on open government matters, and highlight the opportunity for formal cooperation and subnational membership.
• Engage with state and territory Information Commissioners to:

1. agree to the design of a survey to measure the value citizens place on the right to access government information, and their awareness of, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right
2. conduct survey
3. analyse and publish results of survey

Start Date: September 2018                                                                 End Date: August 2020

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/2018/09/Australia_Action-Plan_2018-2020.pdf.

Context and Objectives

The Commonwealth, states, and territories have separate policies and legislative frameworks for access to government information. This includes legislation generally providing for public access to government information either proactively and/or upon request. The enforcement of this legislation (and in some instances, the right to review decisions on releasing information) is administered by an information commissioner, or ombudsman, who must inform the public on the implementation of right-to-information legislation. ^[45] Policies on privacy protection, open data, and data-sharing can vary across jurisdictions.

This commitment builds on Commitment 9 from NAP1. That commitment developed, collected, and published metrics measuring the public’s use of access to information rights. This commitment seeks to extend that effort and measure the value citizens place on the right to access government information, their awareness of this right, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. It will also seek to raise awareness of possible state and territory involvement in the Open Government Partnership and explore opportunities for greater collaboration and learning between jurisdictions on open government.

This commitment is generally verifiable. The proposed activities for engaging state and territory governments to design, execute, and publish citizen survey findings on access to government information are verifiable. It is also possible to record and verify activities that aim to engage state and territory governments in promoting open government. However, the milestones lack specificity as to what form of administrative engagement is intended, and whether such engagement is likely to result in any further open government initiatives. This lack of specificity hinders a thorough assessment of the potential impact of this commitment.

By surveying the public for their perceptions on access to government information, which could later inform policies, this commitment may enable civic participation in decision-making. However, the terms of the commitment do not include public participation in the design or analysis of the survey, like what questions will be asked or how participants will be selected. The analysis and publication of the survey may increase public access to information, and greater awareness and cooperation between jurisdictions on open government initiatives may indirectly improve programs relevant to OGP values.

If fully implemented as written, this commitment stands to have minor potential impact on improving public access to information, and civic participation in decision-making through state and territory governments. Although it is unclear whether the survey will be open to the public at large, the survey may provide new information on citizen perceptions, albeit not significantly greater than that already collected at the national level. The commitment also does not specify how the government intends to use the survey findings. Greater inter-governmental cooperation may help to identify and increase awareness of open government initiatives in different jurisdictions, but without high-level support, any encouragement of further open government initiatives is unlikely to be significant.

Next Steps

In the progress report on the first national action plan, the IRM recommended that the role of the Open Government Forum be expanded to include consideration of open government initiatives at the state and territory level. This would enhance coordination between jurisdictions and might develop subnational open government commitments. Expanding the range of jurisdictions working on open governance can broaden the scope of open government initiatives and raise awareness of the OGP.

Australia responded to that recommendation by including this commitment to engage states and territories, allowing the Forum to play an indirect role in promoting such coordination and cooperation. Further cross-jurisdictional analysis of public use and perceptions of access to information laws can also increase the use and reform of such laws.

It is therefore recommended that future national action plans include a commitment to ensure cooperation and coordination between the Commonwealth, states, and territories, perhaps by formalising arrangements beyond administrative engagement, and including subnational commitments. In implementing this commitment, information commissioners could involve civil society and the general public in the design, conduct, and analysis of the survey, and generate interest in open government initiatives among civil society groups operating at subnational levels.

5. Engage states and territories to better understand information access

Complete

For details regarding the implementation and early results of this commitment, see Section 2.3.

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to raise awareness of the Open Government Partnership at state and territorial levels, through a survey measuring the value citizens place on the right to access government information. It continued a commitment from the first action plan to develop a simpler, more coherent framework for managing and accessing government information. ^[27]

Did it open government?

Marginal

This commitment is complete. It was a first step to raise OGP awareness at the subnational level following official authority from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that states and territories could develop sub-national plans. ^[28]

The Information Commissioners from New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Ombudsman from the Australian Capital Territory surveyed communities’ valuation of access to government information. “Value” was defined as citizens’ awareness of their rights to access government information, their attempts to access information, and their successful attempts to access the information. ^[29] The summary findings, released in September 2019, complement the National Dashboard - Utilisation of Information Access Rights, a deliverable from the first action plan that gives detailed comparisons of jurisdictional response rates to formal information requests. ^[30]

This commitment has marginally changed government practice of improving access to information. The government did not release the complete report, nor any detailed jurisdictional responses on how they could encourage more citizens to attempt to access government information. OGF members felt that the findings were thoughtful and led to forming commitments for the third action plan. They noted it was a warm-up study with great potential for involving states in the process but wondered whether it offered a structure that would provide a place for progress, as they felt there was no authorising environment. ^[31]

The NSW Information Commissioner has subsequently released 2020 citizen information access results. ^[32] In 2020 the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner consulted on a discussion paper on proactive and informal release in the Victorian public sector, published the submissions, and reported that it will use the information received in the submissions to explore how it can better assist agencies to proactively and informally publish information. ^[33]

The IRM researcher understands that the next stages of this long-term work (i.e., implementation and policy formation) will be included in the third action plan. ^[34]