Click here to view the embedded video.

Transcript:

Hi. I’m Senator Kate Lundy. Thank you very much for the invitation to share my thoughts at you Open Government policy consultation.

We’re of course in a bit of an interesting place here in Australia having had our Federal Election but still awaiting negotiations to see if Labor is in a position to form Government, with the support of the Independents. So not withstanding all of that, I’m really happy to run through how we got to where we are in Australia with regards to Open Government and Gov 2.0.

I’ll start by saying that it’s been a fantastic journey so far. I won’t define Gov 2.0 because I know you can go to my website, katelundy.com.au and see the definitions that I’ve described, but rather I thought I’d focus on the practical realities of implementing a more open government using the tools of the Internet, in my presentation today.

So first of all I’d like to talk about leadership.

In all of the work we’ve done, leadership and the need for leadership, whether it’s political, structurally, organisationally and within the public service, it’s critical. And I should start by saying that we got to where we are because a huge amount of groundwork was put in through a series of reports. And I’ll come to those.

But the leadership that comes from the political level, I think culminated in our Declaration of Open Government. Our former Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, and Special Minister of State, Joe Ludwig, put together the Declaration of Open Government on the back of a recommendation from our Gov 2.0 Taskforce, and that Declaration really articulated the highest level political commitment to achieving a more open and transparent government in Australia.

I was very proud of it, it was actually released literally days before the Federal Election campaign was called so I was very pleased to have it formally on the books as a statement of the commitment of the Labor Government.

The structural leadership comes in the form of legislation creating a new office for an Information Commissioner.

The legislation that passed the Parliament, again just in this last year, set up two major reforms. One in relation to Freedom of Information and how we have a legislative framework for the release of information into the public domain, but the second part – and I think it probably attracted less attention in the public debate and discussion – was the creation of the Office of the Information Commissioner.

Within that office our Privacy Commissioner, our Freedom of Information Commissioner and so forth will exist.

But the Office of the Information Commissioner will oversee what those open information policies will look like, and how they’re implemented across the Commonwealth Government, across Australia’s Federal Government.

I think the policy leadership that will emanate from the Office of the Information Commissioner is a very key reform.

Finally our workforce. The Commonwealth Public Sector is an incredibly efficient and proud workforce and one of the key themes of many of the reports we’ve done into Gov 2.0 reform and open government point to is the level of leadership that is required within our agencies and departments. Without that commitment at the Secretary level within agencies, presuming quite rightly in our case that the political commitment is there, change isn’t going to happen.

It needs to be celebrated and encouraged, and I think rewarded when it occurs. So the leadership that is required within agencies and departments is quite profound if we are going to progress the open government agenda.

The second area I want to discuss in the practical tasks of implementing Government 2.0 is a plan.

What does a plan look like for the public sector and government. And I’ve mentioned already a couple of reports. The first one that really set up on our way is titled “Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0“. This is the report of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce. It was chaired by Dr Nicholas Gruen, and had a fantastic group of people from the private and public sector. The vast majority of its recommendations were accepted by the Government and I have described it as a definitive blueprint for implementing Gov 2.0 and aspects of open government for Australia.

So this was quite a critical step in getting to where we are. We couldn’t have achieved what we’ve achieved or even gotten to the stage of the Declaration of Open Government without the hard work that was put in by committee members in compiling this report in a very short space of time.

It’s been internationally commended for its detail and its practical ideas and it’s something I’m immensely proud of.

The other quite important report towards reform is the “Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of the Australian Government Administration“, so what happens next with the Australian Public Service. This was prepared by an advisory group that was chaired by Dr Terry Moran, who is the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

So very much a whole of government analysis of what’s happening in the Australian Public Sector. Importantly, this report also dwelt on the need for cultural and attitudinal change within the Public Service and I’ll come back to that one shortly.

So both of these reports received effectively endorsement across the board in government. Both reports emphasised the need for cultural and attitudinal change across the Public Sector to more effectively use, deploy and actively engage with citizens via the Internet.

Both reports acknowledge that social media, and very specifically public servants interacting with the citizens they serve via the Internet – there is a key shift that needs to occur if we are going to leverage the service benefits and the engagement benefits that I think the Internet offers.

And they both come back to that point about needing that cultural and attitudinal change to embrace those technologies in the day to day business of government.

The other important thing about both of these reports is they fit together nicely.

The Gov 2.0 Taskforce report looks at the nuts and bolts of achieving greater transparency in government, with a particular emphasis on cultural and attitudinal change, but also the release of public sector information into the public domain. So that was a key theme of that Taskforce report which distinguishes it I think from Ahead of the Game, which looks more closely – as you’d expect – at the workforce issues and the types of skillsets and the level of innovation that we will need in our future public service if we are going to adapt to the challenges of the future.

So together, they form a very comprehensive plan for the future of how we achieve more open government and the uniting message of them both is the culture change so it’s important to see them as a collective group of documents that provide the path forward.

A consultative public service responding to changing needs, to me, is a very important issue. Both reports picked this up, but how do we create a public sector that is more citizen-centric, more responsive to both the individual needs and also recognising the differences in communities.

Federal Government policy making tends to err towards one size fits all, whereas what we know about the challenges of our different communities right around the country is that each one is quite unique. Some share characteristics – they’re fast growth corridors, or they’re sea change environments with a huge tourist season explosion of population, or they’re out of suburban metropolis with all of the challenges of transport corridors, so they share attributes in some respects but they’re all unique in their own right.

How do we construct Federal policies which are responsive to those circumstances? And I really believe that both of these reports and the way of the future is being able to deploy the sophisticated tools of the Internet, and indeed clever software to be able to adapt our policies to be fully accountable, fully transparent, but much more responsive to those individual community needs.

If you translate that to the citizen-centric approach, the same can be said for government services to families, to citizens, in however they live their lives.

For citizens to be able to navigate the different spheres of government – here in Australia it’s Local, State/Territory and Federal, so three usually – through citizen-centric centric service delivery is I think already achievable and I’m really proud of our australia.gov.au domain that is going a long way to pull in that range of services across government in a central place where citizens can give as much information as they would like and get feedback about what is available in their community, as individuals, what services they are able to access at whatever point in life they find themselves.

So citizen-centric services but community centric policy as well I think is one of the exciting prospects that Government 2.0 offers us.

Finally, open public information, and PSI in the public domain is a key platform. It’s about making sure what information is collected at taxpayers expense, by the government, is made available to tax payers, to the citizens.

So it’s kind of a crude way of articulating it but it is a principle that I think sits at the heart of open and transparent government. Information collected that may seem useless in one capacity could be mashed up and made immensely useful for communities to help explore their own characteristics, perhaps fuelling exciting new policy ideas of the future.

So PSI and releasing that Public Sector Information into the public domain will allow it to be mashed up, to be applied to innovative new uses and I think this is an important part of it.

It presents a particular challenge though, from a human resource and workforce perspective what needs to change within the public sector to make the availability of that information the default, the norm, rather than the exception. And this is where I think our FOI reforms play a role.

We as a Government firmly believe that the default position of information should be that it is public unless there is a very good reason for it not to be.

Structurally and I guess practically that is a huge challenge within the public service, because it means publishing information in advance of a period of time than it otherwise would have been. So we need to address what the systems of government look like behind the scenes to try and achieve this goal.

I’ve been a member of the Australian Archive Advisory Council for this last term, and that’s been instructive as to what is a Commonwealth record at that next step when you’re looking at archiving and storing those records. But I think the experience in the Archive as to what constitutes a record and what its conditions are of making it publicly available through the formal Archiving Act, is illustrative and instructive about the approach we need to take to making information public well in advance of their sentencing under the Archive Act and I think that’s an exciting area that we’re exploring and I certainly recommend those recommendations adopted from the Gov 2.0 Taskforce to go down that path.

It’s a very practical area, but one that I think we’re determined to pursue.

Finally the enabling policies that underpin all of this. In Australia we’ve done a number of really big things that I think are enabling of what we talk about as open government, and one of them is the National Broadband Network.

Because the tools of openness in the 21st Century are on the Internet. It is a digital environment, and how can you have genuinely open government if you don’t also have a strategy for universal Internet access that is both affordable, and high bandwidth.

Well we do, and we do because we’re investing in a National Broadband Network. So for me, that is an enabling policy for open and transparent government, and it provides a prerequisite for open and transparent government to be genuinely democratic.

Without that policy, our investments in open and transparent government would be the purview  of the privileged few. The socio-economic demographic that can afford high bandwidth, high quality Internet access. Well, the NBN resolves that problem for us and I’m incredibly proud of that. That way, the NBN is not just economic infrastructure for the future, it’s certainly that, but it’s also social infrastructure for the future that will forever underpin democratic engagement and involvement and participation by citizens in this country.

There are a few other enabling policies I’d like to mention. Certainly our investment in computers for schools and our investment in research and development through our public university system all form a part of it, and I’d like to also fly a flag that I think we can do better in investing in our public library system to make sure we have those public places where citizens can come in in a supported environment and learn about the array of government services that are online or what opportunities exist for them to participate in our democracy, engage with perhaps their local member, or indeed other citizens.

And a supported environment to do that, those public access points I think will be a critical part of the mix. For me personally I see our public library network, which is phenomenal here in Australia, I think we could strengthen it more and provide additional resources to make sure they can fulfil their charter in that regard.

After all librarians are information professionals and they have an extraordinary skillset that I think we could tap into more effectively as a government.

Finally I’d like to turn to a brief example about how we have experimented with this in our office. I should have acknowledged Pia at the beginning of my talk. She’s here with me now helping me record this presentation but of course Pia and I collaborated in the development of our Public Sphere events.

In essence we felt the need to demonstrate that it was possible to have a policy consultation that used the tools that exist within the cloud, the social networking environments, to enhance that policy conversation and make it more inclusive, more transparent, more accountable in that regard, but I think more inclusive most of all.

The Public Sphere did that. It was an event that extended over a couple of months all up, where we used the digital environment including a WordPress blog, various social media environments including Twitter, Flickr, a live feed, and live streaming on the day to capture and share the thoughts of a given policy topic.

It probably won’t surprise you that one of the topics we had for our Public Spheres was Gov 2.0, and I was very pleased, in fact Pia and I were both thrilled that the Government chose to launch their Government 2.0 Taskforce at our Gov 2.0 Public Sphere back in mid last year, so we’re very proud about that.

But the Gov 2.0 Public Sphere that we held showed that when you put people who are enthusiastic about policy ideas in the same place, deploy a whole range of social networking tools for the applied purpose of capturing the thoughts and inspirations and ideas around a given topic that is becomes a marvellous way to consolidate all of that and draw out of that conversation very specific policy ideas.

And I won’t go into too much more detail about a Public Sphere other that we were able to use the environment of a wiki, and then more software that applied a rating system to some of the ideas that came out it, an endorsement system, we were able to come out with a very specific document that encapsulated recommendations on where we could go forward in that particular area of policy.

Pia and I are very proud of Public Sphere, we’ve not only got the policy outcomes of the three different Public Spheres, but we did an event brief as well, so you can explore the methodology in full, all of the participation statistics and the outcomes again on my website, so just search on “Public Sphere” on katelundy.com.au.

The benefits of the Public Sphere show that there is nothing to be afraid of in going into a completely open environment. We didn’t require any prior registration, we used the good will and had a great deal of faith in the community who were passionate about open government in Australia not to abuse that environment, and they didn’t.

It self regulated into a very sophisticated and I think relevant conversation around the topic at hand. And was I think a credit not only to everyone who participated, but also how you can use the tools that already exist.

Pia and I have often contemplated what it would be to have a budget to do these things with, but we were able to demonstrate with Public Sphere that with a, I have to say, very talented volunteer community combined with the tools that already exist in the cloud, the citizens who are already occupying those social networking environments of their choice and then applying that to a conversation was a really effective way of doing it on an extremely low budget.

So it’s not about reinventing anything, it’s about clever use of what’s already out there.

The other really important feature of Public Sphere is it’s inclusive nature. It was actually possible to participate in Public Sphere and not have any digital technology at all and still have your voice heard. If people emailed us, or wrote us letters, or just turned up on the day to the seminar part of the Public Sphere and said their piece, they were an equal contributor to people who were blogging, or contributing via the Twitter feed, or presenting, or commenting on the wiki later.

So the idea is that it’s leveraging the benefits of the technology, but not being exclusive about the technology, or exclusive about people who are not comfortable with the technology if you know what I mean.

So the great strength of it is that it enhanced what we think are the very strengths of the digital environment without accidentally enhancing the weaknesses of the old system.

Our democracy has evolved in a way that we like to have conversations in rooms about topics and have the chance to think about them afterwards, Public Sphere builds on all of those strengths of a traditional consultation.

And reaching out to known experts in the field and extending a hand of invitation to participate is a key part of it. The nice thing about Public Sphere, you don’t have to be a known expert to participate. You could be a very clever enthusiastic member of the public, who would never otherwise have an opportunity to share their idea. Well Public Sphere gives you the opportunity to share your idea on equal status with known experts in the field, and we think that is a marvellous application of a Public Sphere policy consultation environment.

So, I’m running out of time. The impact of the Public Sphere I think is it demonstrated that it can work in a completely open in a completely open environment. Governments need not be afraid of doing things in a completely open and transparent way. The goodwill that exists within the hearts and minds of the vast majority of citizens only needs to be tapped into, because most people want to make a difference for the better of their communities.

I think we can do a lot better using the digital tools that already exist in the Internet to bring those people into the conversation and I really commend the spirit of open government to all of you in that regard.

I’m really proud of the fact that the Public Sphere events stand out there as an exemplar. I think they compliment the amazing work of the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce, the Ahead of the Game Report, as I said the enabling investments of the National Broadband Network, the Digital Education Revolution.

All of these things fit together and point to a future which is very exciting, very open, transparent to the point where the default principle is openness and availability of information, and this can only enhance our system of government and people’s confidence in our democracy.

So good luck with all of your deliberations. I’m sorry I can’t be there with you in person, but I hope you get something from my presentation today and you are inspired to take whatever the next steps are for New Zealand.

Thanks very much.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comments from Minister Tanya Plibersek

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Thanks very much for that. It’s a terrific pleasure to be here today with my colleague, the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, with our candidate for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, with my good friend, Senator Kate Lundy, making what is really a very important announcement for this local community.

I want to congratulate the ACT Land Development Agency and the ACT Government, especially the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, for getting these two very important projects off the ground. These two projects will share in almost $10 million of Commonwealth funding and will cut the price of nearly 1700 homes in Crace and Gungaderra West by between $15,000 and almost $24,000 per home.

The first project that we’re announcing is $7.6 million to fund the early construction of a collector road and bus route, providing public transport services to the residents of this development in Crace. And those of you who are driving out here will understand how very important that public transport link will be in the future.

By funding this new infrastructure the Federal Government’s helping to bring forward the supply of 1591 homes, including 248 affordable homes, by up to 14 months. And having that – those homes hit the ground earlier is important for local residents who are looking for a place to live. It’s also important in terms of affordability outcomes.

We’ve also added a benefit – the cost of new homes for buyers here at Crace will have about a $15,000 savings on what they would otherwise have paid if they needed to pay for this infrastructure themselves.

The second project I’m announcing today is $2.16 million for roads and services at Gungaderra West, including pedestrian paving, drainage, gas reticulation, communications and soft landscaping. And that will save buyers of a hundred lots an average of $23,760 per lot.

The infrastructure funding will also facilitate the development of a further 75 homes that will be retained by Community Housing Canberra, as community housing stock. And it’s great to see Community Housing Canberra here today as well.

Those two projects are very welcome news for Canberra home buyers. It means that more residential lots will be brought to the market more quickly and that those residential lots will include savings for home buyers. So we’re not only speeding up the development of this housing, we’re reducing the cost.

There’s a third Housing Affordability Fund project here in the ACT as well. Just to remind people of that; under the first round of the program, the Federal Labor Government invested three and a half million dollars in infrastructure at Bonner, including a water main. That funding helped to fast track the release of 330 affordable house and land packages.

So with these three projects from the Housing Affordability Fund we’ve helped a significant number of Canberra home buyers save on their new homes. Also, in June this year, I announced that the ANU have been approved to deliver over a thousand new affordable rental homes in Canberra under the National Rental Affordability Scheme. The first of these thousand homes will be made available to tenants within the next few months, and other stages are expected to deliver units in January 2011 and January 2012 and June 2012.

About 80 per cent of those units will be studio apartments, with the remainder being a variety of different sized units. And that will be a big help for both students, but also other renters in Canberra, as pressure is taken off the rental market in Canberra with the inclusion of those new properties.

When it comes to the construction of stimulus properties, we are also funding the construction of nearly 380 new social housing dwellings in Canberra. And in mid-July nearly 350 of those had commenced construction and 55 had already been completed. And it’s been terrific to be able to be with the Chief Minister and with my colleague, Kate Lundy and with Andrew Leigh, moving people into those new homes and meeting the tenants of those new properties. It’s a wonderful thing to see those new homes being tenanted.

I also want to congratulate the ACT Government on all of the efforts they’ve made in the area of affordable housing and housing affordability. It really is such a critical thing to the ordinary residents of Canberra and the ACT to be able to rent or buy a house that they can afford to live in. And by working together through this scheme, the Housing Affordability Fund will deliver savings to new home buyers through the National Rental Affordability Scheme and our social housing stimulus; we deliver more affordable rental properties.

Both those homes to buy and rent are critical to the secure future of Canberra residents. So it’s been terrific to work with you on these projects, Chief Minister, and congratulations on the two that we’re announcing today. I think they’ll make a great contribution to the lives of many Canberra residents. Thanks.

FACILITATOR: Thank you, Minister Plibersek. I note this is not Ms Plibersek’s first visit to Crace either. October last year we had the pleasure of her opening the Crace project for us, and the display village and I think she was commenting earlier just how much progress has been made in the last 10 months, with a lot of houses and people living here. So thank you for your involvement with us today.

Now it’s my pleasure to introduce the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope. Please welcome him.

Comments from Chief Minister of the ACT Jon Stanhope

JON STANHOPE: Thank you very much, John. I’d like and I very much welcome this opportunity to respond to this particular initiative of the Commonwealth Government, as announced by the Minister, Tanya Plibersek, today.

I do acknowledge my friend and colleagues, Senator Kate Lundy and Andrew Leigh, ALP candidate for Fraser in the upcoming election, and other guests and, indeed, most particularly partners in this particular development that this project and proposal, CHC Community Housing. It’s Chairman, Ross Barrett, who are here today, and our joint venture partner through the LDA in the Crace development, its colleagues and the Chief Executive of CIC, our joint venture partners here at Crace.

And I think first and foremost, Minister, I wish simply to say thank you and to thank the government, the Commonwealth Government, your government, for its understanding and commitment to affordable housing and the needs of Australian families, and to thank you for the willingness of your government to work in partnership with states and territories and with local governments in delivering housing and affordable housing to the people that we represent.

I’d like, before going to the details of today’s announcement in relation to the Housing Affordability Fund, to again, to repeat and to reiterate what I believe has been underscored in community commentary in recent times in relation to the absolutely fundamental importance of an issue such as the Commonwealth Government’s support for social housing through the stimulus package that was announced two years ago; not just in terms of the number of houses delivered, the raw statistics, the funding by the Commonwealth through the social housing stimulus part of its response to the GFC. In other words, the provision of 20,000 houses, social housing or public housing, for Australians over a period of two to three years.

Not just the raw statistics, around 20,000 additional Australian families being provided with affordable and appropriate housing, but the enormous effect and impact and importance of that funding in combating and dealing with the GFC, of the most significant economic or financial crisis that the world faced in over 70 years and the fact that we, in Australia, through all our communities, were able to survive the global financial crisis in a way that no other of the western or advanced economies were able to do.

I’m, at times, surprised at how quickly we appear to forget the crisis that we were facing two years ago. I’m surprised and perhaps at times, regretful of the fact that the enormous effort that our federal colleagues within the Federal Labor Government stood up, faced the issue, responded strongly, dealt with the global financial crisis, allowed communities such as ours to maintain the level of economic activity that we require in order to support and sustain the jobs that are important to all of us.

And through the jobs and economic growth, the families that depend on governments to ensure that major crises, such as we faced through the global financial crisis here in Australia, were dealt with and overcome to the extent they were.

One aspect of that, and the aspect we’re talking about today, was housing. Our Federal Government, our Federal Labor Government, in that simple decision, a large, big picture, visionary decision to deal with the global financial crisis while supporting the housing needs of Australians in one fell swoop has delivered 20,000 additional units of public housing. Here in the ACT as the Minister just said, 380, but we took the opportunity to leverage off the Commonwealth’s funding in excess of $100 million for this community to provide an additional 120 houses. We are in the process of delivering an additional 500 units of public housing here in the ACT as a result of the Commonwealth stimulus support for social housing, a four per cent increase in a fell swoop to our public housing stock.

Never achieved here in the ACT at any stage in our development and the sort of increase in public housing stock never achieved anywhere in Australia, that I’m aware of probably in the lifetimes of any of us. That’s the significance, the nation building, the significance to the community of what the Commonwealth did through the investment in social housing through the decisions it made to provide a stimulus. We should never forget that in the context of what this government has done, not just for housing, but in protecting our communities.

So thank you for the enormous contribution to social housing and to affordability here in the ACT through the social housing initiatives that we’ve been pursuing vigorously over the last couple of years. We’re very pleased and proud of our record of delivering of achievement. We’re currently constructing in excess of 350 of what ultimately will be 380 houses funded by the Commonwealth with the additional 120, which we have taken the opportunity through the leveraging capacity that the Commonwealth provided to provide an additional 500 in the community.

Similarly, the Minister, and I won’t go to any great detail in relation to it, has also announced the joint announcement which she and I attended just recently at the Australian National University, to support or fund jointly an additional 1000, these are for a community such as ours here in the ACT, these are stunning numbers. A 1000 additional supported rental accommodation units here in the ACT, through accommodation to be delivered by the Australian National University.

And again, these are stunning investments by the Commonwealth in partnership with the ACT and community providers, institutional providers here in the territory. But to today’s announcement, and the Minister has gone to the basis of funding, and the rationale is that the Commonwealth through the announcement today is supporting industry housing here in the ACT to the tune of $10 million in fast tracking or assisting in the fast tracking of the supply of service land. It’s a supply side initiative. It’s the area where governments throughout Australia, of local, state and territory, have had stress in supporting the supply side aspects of housing shortage or affordability.

We see this as a direct response by the Commonwealth Government to an area of stress that the states and territories, including the ACT Government, have faced in relation to supply of service land and the provision once the land is identified and the basic roads are developed, the other critical infrastructures, such as water, sewerage, transport and open space.

The Minister has outlined the significant impact it will have on affordability here and I thank the Minister again for the Commonwealth Labor Government’s commitment to housing affordability in all of its aspects. And it’s only through this very broad ranging suite of initiatives across the board that the [indistinct] jurisdictions that communities will get on top of the issue of providing appropriate and affordable accommodation for all of our residents.

So thank you for being here and thank you again, Minister, for your enormous support.

Comments from the Labor Candidate for Fraser Dr Andrew Leigh

ANDREW LEIGH: I just wanted to briefly say a couple of words to follow on to what the Minister and the Chief Minister have said today. I think today’s announcement is the best of what government can do. What you’ve seen is a partnership between Federal Government, ACT Government and the private sector, working together to provide affordable homes for those who need them most.

I don’t know about you but when I come into a place like this I can’t help but imagine what’s going to happen in a home like this. The parties that people will have, the fun they will have getting to know one and other. Affordable homes are often the first homes that people buy when they have a family. So you can imagine the children that will take their first steps on this floor.

They’re the real realities of what happens when you make an affordable housing announcement work. So I’m very proud today to be part of this terrific initiative for all the many reasons that the Minister and the Chief Minister have outlined, thank you.

FACILITATOR: Thank you, Andrew, and thank you, Chief Minister, for your words. I think you only really have to look outside of the windows of this new home that we’re all standing in to see what actually can be achieved when you’ve got the Commonwealth Government, the ACT Government, the private sector and government authorities like the Land Development Agency working together to achieve outcomes.

Community Housing Canberra is also part of our development as one of our minor partners in place but a very important component of it. But also across Canberra, Community Housing Canberra are doing a lot with the LDA and with other parts of the ACT Government.

And I think the one thing that hadn’t been mentioned was the number of [indistinct] projects that CHC is also involved in. So I know they greatly appreciate the Commonwealth support on that. So we look forward to continuing to work over time with the Commonwealth Government with the private sector on joint ventures like Crace and projects like today’s Housing Affordability Fund objectives.

This will not only help in terms of the individuals that move into these homes but the fact that we’re actually able to bring forward in the order of 1500 dwellings across both Gungaderra West and also here at Crace that really helps address the broader demand and stops people, well stops the continued escalation in housing prices. That’s a particularly pleasing element for the Land Development Agency.

So I’d like to thank everybody today and I know that Minister Plibersek is willing to take some questions and the Chief Minister also. Once the questions are over, there will be some refreshments for those who are able to stay. It’s probably a warm cup of tea or coffee would be quite handy given how cold it is outside.

Thank you everyone for your participation today and for those of you who have to go to other meetings, I think the Minister and the Chief Minister will understand if you need to leave. But thank you for your participation today.

Questions from the press

FACILITATOR: Now if any of you who actually don’t need to be in here for these questions and want to sneak out now, now is a very good time to do that. Okay, making a run for it. So we’ll just let them make a run for it. Are there any questions about this project to start with?

QUESTION: Minister, to clarify, is this new funding or pre-existing funding that you’re announcing today?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, we’re announcing funding from an existing program, it’s the Housing Affordability Fund program that has been existent for the term of the government. But this is the first time we’ve announced this project here today.

QUESTION: So this is infrastructure that will be developed but we’re not going to have to foot the bill for?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: This is infrastructure that the developer would foot the bill for but the costs would be normally passed onto home buyers. So part of the Housing Affordability Fund is the savings that would normally – we’re making savings that would normally be passed onto, costs that would normally be passed onto home buyers, either by local government, by State or Territory Governments or by developers, having to pay for that infrastructure up front and then levying new home buyers. So this, at the end of the day, is a saving for new home buyers of between $17,000 and almost $24,000.

QUESTION: So how can you be sure that these costs will – that they will be discounted, that this will be taken off the overall [indistinct].

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, because we’re working very closely with the ACT Government and with the land holder here and the developer to make sure that those cost savings are passed on.

QUESTION: Will we see any new funding announcements from the government during the election campaign, with regard to housing affordability schemes?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well the first election policy of the campaign was a housing affordability policy, a $200 million Building Better Regional Cities policy announcement. That was designed to work with fast growing communities where there were job opportunities and land available, where they wanted to grow their housing stock. We’ve written to 46 councils around the country and asked them if they’re interested in growing and they’ve got the land and the community support and the jobs, to write to us after the election, should we be the government and we’ll work with them on choosing the most successful applications for up to $15 million to help them with that housing growth.

QUESTION: There have been criticisms from industry experts that homelessness and housing affordability hasn’t been talked about in this election campaign.

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, I don’t think that that’s right at all. In fact, I’ve spoken to the head of the Prime Minister’s Council on Homelessness, Tony Nicholson, who has told me that he’s been very positive when asked publicly about our progress on homelessness. I’ve been right around the country talking about, not just homelessness, but housing affordability generally. The first policy of the election campaign was the $200 million housing affordability policy.

Of course we haven’t heard anything from the Liberals. They don’t back our homelessness targets; they’ve been completely unsupportive of the stimulus housing measures that have kept construction jobs strong. That have seen growth in the jobs in the construction sector when, in every other comparable economy, we’re seeing construction workers laid off.

The Liberal Party certainly have no housing policies but it’s not fair to say that the Government hasn’t been very active and very vocal on housing affordability and homelessness.

QUESTION: Minister, how do you justify targeting the $200 million announced early in the campaign, to places like the Gold Coast? It’s not exactly a regional backwater city. How can you – does that really service regional Australia? I mean, the Gold Coast has half a million people and within close proximity to Brisbane.

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, we’ve chosen the fastest growing areas outside of capital cities and the south east corner of Queensland is one of the fastest, the fastest growing parts of the country. They’ve got enormous pressures on their physical and social infrastructure and it’s a great lifestyle for people who can afford a home there. There are jobs there and you know, close proximity to Brisbane mean that there are jobs there.

But we have written to 46 different councils, right around the country. Some of those in areas like the south east corner of Queensland, where there’s enormously fast growth. Some of them are towns like Burnie in Tasmania, that are a little bit further away from a capital city but where there’s still the opportunity for people to move and have a great lifestyle if they can find an affordable place to rent or buy.

QUESTION: But it’s not really a regional city, is it? I mean, it’s larger than some capital cities in Australia.

TANYA PLIBERSEK: It’s a very fast growing area with jobs available and land available and it’s a terrific place for people to live. So I think it’s a great idea to help the Gold Coast region deal with the pressures of growth that they’re experiencing.

QUESTION: But you have to concede that by targeting a place like the Gold Coast under the banner of a regional program kind of undermines it as a regional policy altogether.

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, it’s not a capital city. It’s a fast growing region, it’s part of the south east corner of Queensland. There are enormous housing pressures in that area and it’s a terrific opportunity to help those councils, existing residents and potential new residents, find an affordable place to live in a better community.

QUESTION: This was funded in the last budget, is that right? This year’s budget?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: The Housing Affordability Fund is an ongoing program from when we first came into government. This is funded in the latest round of the Housing Affordability Fund.

QUESTION: So we’ve seen Bonner and Crace now, will the ACT have more access to the contributions?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: And Gungaderra West is the other place, so there’s three projects now funded through the Housing Affordability Fund in the ACT.

QUESTION: And can we expect any more?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, not from the Housing Affordability Fund but certainly we’re working with the ACT Government in a number of different ways. In the National Rental Affordability Scheme where we’ve partnered with the ACT Government to deliver substantial numbers of new affordable rental accommodation. With the Social Housing Stimulus, that’s an ongoing building program.

We’ve worked very closely with the ACT Government on homelessness as well and I have to congratulate them on the rollout of their homelessness projects. It’s been a very strong and ongoing partnership.

QUESTION: On to homelessness briefly, it was a major issue for former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, can we expect to see Prime Minister Gillard visit homeless shelters as Rudd did, in this election campaign?

TANYA PLIBERSEK: This is a strong priority for the Labor Government and it’ll be a strong priority for a re-elected Labor Government. We know that Julia Gillard, as the Minister for Social Inclusion, was very supportive of our efforts in homelessness and has worked very closely with the large non-government organisations and with housing workers, homelessness workers, and people on the ground who are delivering services to the most disadvantaged Australians.

Okay, thanks everybody.

CANBERRA

11 AUGUST 2010

First, John Coleman and Les Bienkiewicz outlined the history and issues involved in the campaign. Then Senator Gary Humphries, Lin Hatfield Dodds and I spoke in turn on our ideas and our party positions. SCOA and DFWA acknowledged the support given to the campaign by local federal representatives, and I thank them for this.

Senator Humphries was able to speak of the commitment given by his party to improve the indexation for one section only of the Defence superannuants, those on DFRDB and DFRB pensions. Other Commonwealth superannuants, including Defence superannuants on MSBS pensions and all of those on CSS and PSS pensions will miss out. When asked about policy and a time frame for any extensions to other Commonwealth superannuants of the indexation changes, Senator Humphries admitted that there was no such timetable as the Coalition’s priority had to be to first get rid of the debt. This prompted the comment from the questioner that “by then we will all be dead”.

So it is very important that we press for action now.

I said that I did not agree that a changed indexation applying to only one section of Defence pensions was a fair solution, although of course they deserve it. But I agree with David Jamison and the DFWA that this “political football” with veterans should stop. I spoke of my disappointment at the Government’s acceptance of the Matthews Report and its recommendations, and of my determination to find a way around the Report to gain fair indexation and fair treatment of all Defence and ComSuper pensions.
Recommendation 4 of the Matthews Report gives us the green light to implement a new and fair indexation method, and we have asked the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Finance to advise of the provision of an Analytical Living Cost Index targeted to the needs of ComSuper and Defence pensioners.

As an interim and immediate measure, while this targeted ALCI is developed, we have proposed that the PBLCI which was introduced to improve indexation for the age pension, be added to the indexation calculations for Defence and ComSuper pensions.
Our second major proposal to improve and sustain the value of Defence and ComSuper pensions concerns the tax treatment of these pensions.

SCOA, in submissions to the Henry tax review, has shown that inequities exist in the tax treatment of these pensions when compared with the tax treatment of other pensions or annuities. We have forwarded SCOA’s suggestion that legislation be enacted to deem CSS and PSS defined benefit funds as taxed super funds, with the result that these pensions would be tax free.
A second option, as SCOA has advocated, would be to separate superannuation pensions from other income and to tax each separately. In this way the superannuation income would not have the effect of increasing to a higher level the marginal tax rate now applied.

In my advocacy to Government I have urged tax reform for Commonwealth superannuation pensions, and have forwarded SCOA’s options.

In continuing this campaign Mike Kelly and I have been joined by our new candidates for Canberra and Fraser, Gai Brodtmann and Andrew Leigh, who also attended yesterday’s meeting. We will continue to seek and to take the advice of SCOA, DFWA and ACPSRO.

We look forward to persuading a re-elected Labor Government and the new Minister of Finance to act quickly to make the reforms we all seek. At the time of publishing, the outcome of the election is still to be determined.

For more information about the Canberra YWCA, see their web page http://ywca-canberra.org.au/home

Question 6 Strengthening social inclusion
What will you/your party do to ensure that the role and needs of women, families and communities in disadvantaged areas are addressed, including through the social inclusion agenda?

On 28 January 2010 the Government launched its national statement on social inclusion, A Stronger, Fairer Australia. The statement sets out a long-term vision and strategy for the Government’s social inclusion agenda, detailing the actions and approach across Government that contribute to achieving this vision.

There are major reforms currently being implemented or trialled to tackle the major causes of social exclusion in six priority areas: targeting jobless families with children to increase work opportunities, improve parenting and build capacity; improving the life chances of children at greatest risk of long term disadvantage; reducing the incidence of homelessness; improving outcomes for people living with disability or mental illness and their carers; closing the gap for Indigenous Australians; and breaking the cycle of entrenched and multiple disadvantage in particular neighbourhoods and communities. The statement also outlines our future directions. For further information, you can access the statement at www.socialinclusion.gov.au/Resources/Pages/Resources.aspx.

Gender is a key variable that interacts with each of the six priority groups. For example, approximately 75 per cent of jobless families – a priority target group – are headed by single women. These differences in causes of social exclusion between women and men will often require different measures targeting women and men to promote effective social inclusion.

Question 7 The Northern Territory Emergency Response and Compulsory Income Management
Will you/your party shift income management from a compulsory model to a voluntary program, coupled with improved service delivery and support for disadvantaged individuals?

On 21 June 2010, the Parliament passed the Government’s legislation to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) and make necessary changes to the Northern Territory Emergency Response laws. Australians want to live in a place where laws affect everybody equally and are not based on race. The passage of this legislation was an achievement because we didn’t have a majority in the Senate.

The legislation repeals all the provisions that suspend the operation of the RDA in relation to all the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) measures. The Government’s legislation also removes all the provisions that state that measures contained in the NTER legislation are deemed to be “special measures”.

The Government has also introduced its welfare reforms to support vulnerable families and children. The reforms will expand the benefits of income management to an increased number of vulnerable Australians – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – and will link income management to the Government’s broader social policy objectives. You may be aware of the Learn or Earn strategy, which places requirements on young people to participate in education, training or employment if they are receiving Youth Allowance or their parents are receiving Family Tax Benefit. Currently it is estimated there are several thousand Indigenous children in the Northern Territory who are not even enrolled to go to school.

For the first time, income management will be linked to school attendance which is compulsory for all school-aged children. Regular school attendance will be a pathway off income management. Income management will also not apply to people without dependent children who have worked an average of 15 hours a week for at least six months in the previous 12 months. Aged Pensioners and Disability Support Pensioners are not included in compulsory income management unless exceptional circumstances apply, like they are caring for children who are identified as being at risk.

The Government is also investing an additional $53 million on financial literacy support for welfare recipients in the Northern Territory.

This new income management scheme is starting across the Northern Territory. Protections under the RDA will apply immediately to participants in this new scheme.

We are committed to evidence-based policy and will be collecting data from the start. If re-elected, the Labor Government will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the policy at the end of 2011. This will inform decisions about extending the scheme to other disadvantaged regions in Australia.

The Labor Government is paying rent to Aboriginal land owners for five-year leases covering 45 communities under the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). The amount of rent was determined independently by the NT Valuer-General. When we came to Government we undertook a comprehensive survey of the lease areas to accurately assess lease boundaries and exclude areas which are not essential to support the delivery of services as part of the NTER. The boundary changes reduced the overall leased area by more than 50 per cent. We have committed that we won’t extend the five year compulsory leases when they expire in 2012.

Since coming to office, the Government has delivered many extra services in the Northern Territory – to highlight some: over 60 additional police in remote communities, 22 safe houses, eight new and 11 upgraded crèches, approximately 7,000 meals a day to around 4,500 children in 67 communities under the school nutrition program, an additional 140 full time equivalent teachers, licensing of 88 community stores to provide a better range of healthy food, and over 14,000 child health checks and over 8,200 follow-up visits for audiology, dental, and ear, nose and throat surgery.

Over 2,000 Community Development Employment Project positions have been converted into properly paid jobs with superannuation and entitlements.

All of these changes complement the Government’s “Closing the Gap” strategy, which is delivering unprecedented investment in early childhood development, education, health, housing, jobs and remote service delivery to the Northern Territory.

In the first year of SIHIP until July 2010, 67 new houses and 344 refurbishments have been completed across the Northern Territory and a further 53 new houses and 81 refurbishments are underway. The housing program is also building a strong, skilled Indigenous workforce. Currently, more than 35 per cent of the program’s workforce in the Northern Territory is Indigenous, creating 200 jobs for Indigenous workers. Federal Labor has put in place major changes in the Northern Territory to ensure targets are met and outcomes meet high standards.

Closing the Gap will take time and demands perseverance from all of us. Federal Labor sees it as a national priority which is essential if we are to build a future where each and every Australian is valued and treated equitably.

Question 8 – Improving childcare, including out of school hours care and vacation care
What will you/your party do to improve out of school hours and vacation care (OSHVC) programs, particularly for 8-15 year olds?

The Australian Government is boosting Out of Hours School Care quality through the development of a National Quality Framework which aims to raise quality and drive continuous improvement in early childhood education and care and school age care services. The Framework includes a nationally consistent Quality Standards and a Learning Framework, which will ensure children in school age care will receive a nationally consistent meaningful leisure program.

The Government recognises the importance of Outside School Hours Care for working parents and for school-aged children. There are no age restrictions on the availability of Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate for school aged children in approved OSHC services.

There is no limit on the number of OSHC services that can be approved to provide Child Care Benefit eligible child care. The number of services providing OSHC is consistently increasing.

Question 9 – Adopting a Human Rights Act
What will you/your party do to ensure that all members of our community, including women, refugees, people from culturally and linguistic backgrounds, and the disadvantaged, can access their human rights- will the party adopt the Human Rights Act?

On 21 April 2010, the Attorney-General launched Australia’s Human Rights Framework, which outlines action which the Government will take to promote and protect human rights. The Framework is available online at www.ag.gov.au/humanrightsframework.

The Framework reaffirms the Government’s commitment to human rights and community engagement. It draws on the valuable work undertaken by the National Human Rights Consultation in canvassing the views of the Australian community.

The Government is aware that concerns were expressed about the possible effects of a Human Rights Act.

Rather than developing a legislative charter, the Framework is focused on ensuring people understand their human rights and responsibilities and that laws are developed, drafted and considered by Parliament with particular focus on ensuring these laws are consistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations.

Guided by the Report of the National Human Rights Consultation, education about human rights and responsibilities has been set as the highest priority within the Framework. This recognises that human rights can be protected and promoted effectively only if an understanding of and commitment to human rights becomes a part of everyday life for the community. Community engagement is central to the success of the implementation of the Framework as all Australians will play a vital role in the promotion and improvement of human rights.

On 23 June 2010, the Attorney-General announced Australia’s Human Rights Framework – Education Grants. Community groups and non-government organisations will be eligible to apply for funding to offer grass-roots, human rights education projects. Applications open on 1 July 2010 and close 30 July 2010. Information about the program is available at www.ag.gov.au/hrgrants.

Additionally, on 2 June 2010, the Attorney-General introduced the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill 2010 into Parliament. The Bill provides for the establishment of a new Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and requires statements assessing compatibility of new laws with Australia’s international human rights obligations to accompany new legislation. Increased Parliamentary scrutiny will ensure public confidence that our laws reflect our human rights obligations.

Question 10 – Strengthening policy responses by improving data collection
To improve understanding and strengthen government responses to the needs of women and girls, what will you/your party do to improve data collection disaggregated by gender, age, race, location and disability so that programs can better respond to the needs of particular population groups, including young women from a range of backgrounds?

On behalf of the Government, the Australian Bureau of Statistics provides data on people who experience a disability, and their carers, which specifies disability type and status, and is disaggregated by gender.

On behalf of the Commonwealth, State, Territory and New Zealand Ministers’ Conference on the Status of Women, the Australian Government is currently working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (the ABS) to develop a set of gender equality indicators that will enable both Government and the community to measure progress towards gender equality in Australian society. Work is also underway to develop an access point to key gender data on the ABS website, to be referred to as ‘Gender @ a Glance’.

The Australian Gender Indicators and Gender @ a Glance webpage are under development, with results expected to be released on the ABS website later this year.

GP Super Clinics are a key part of the Gillard Labor Government’s plan to improve GP and other primary care services around the country.

The ACT is a growing community with young families and chronic GP shortage

To be constructed within the ACT, the GP Super Clinic will offer after hours GP services and help take the pressure off local hospitals.

GP Super Clinics are a key part of the Gillard Labor Government’s plan to improve access to coordinated health care services for the local community.

GP Super Clinics also provide a quality setting to help train some of the 3,000 nurses and 1,300 GPs who will come on-line over the next 3 years as a result of Federal Labor’s investments to address Mr Abbott’s health workforce shortages.

A GP Super Clinic will help take pressure off the Canberra Hospital Emergency Department and provide important and much needed health services, especially after hours, for local families.

“The Gillard Labor Government wants to invest in health services in growing communities like the ACT”, said Nicola Roxon said.

“Tony Abbott would take us backwards on health. He has committed to scrapping funding for GP Super Clinics, which means people in Canberra will miss out on the services this clinic will provide. Tony Abbott just does not have the judgement to be Prime Minister.”

The Gillard Labor Government will provide up to $15 million for the establishment of the ACT GP Super Clinic, as part of the funding for additional GP Super Clinics provided for in the 2010-11 Budget.

A competitive process will be conducted by the Department of Health and Ageing to determine the successful operator of the ACT GP Super Clinic.

CANBERRA
11 AUGUST 2010

Media contact: Annika Hutchins 0407 458 882
Office of Senator Kate Lundy

The first term of a new government is arguably one of the most transformative periods in modern democracies as new ideas responding to new challenges overtake the old and irrelevant.

Around the world, governments and their leaders are exploring the possibilities the Internet offers to redefine democratic participation: and redefine it in a way that renews confidence in our systems of governance and public administration.

We are witness to communities leaping ahead with their own innovations in response to slow, old fashioned bureaucracies. The Internet is the open platform of choice and the freedom and creativity being displayed in the design of new digital tools – be they services, ways to communicate, collaborate and share – are all inspiring.

It is the nations which are able to harness the energy and excitement for active engagement using these new digital tools that will best be able to respond to the challenges and complexities of modern government.

Why? Because through this engagement we are able to tap into experience, ideas and expertise beyond the traditional sources – from the whole of the population – to better inform the task at hand.

Australia is well placed to be a leading nation in this regard. With our focus on social inclusion, lifelong wellbeing, sustainability and growing the economy, we have been investing in the foundations of our future prosperity.

I can say with some authority that Australia has never before been better prepared to leverage the opportunities of the digital age. Having held the IT portfolio in opposition and participated in every Senate IT and communications related senate inquiry for the last 14 years, we are finally making the investments necessary to engage in the globally competitive information industry and build our capacity to innovate locally across every sector through the creative application of technology.

The National Broadband Network and the Digital Education Revolution exemplify the magnitude of our plan to close the digital divide and ensure the next generation of Australians is well equipped to fully participate in an online-enabled society.

We have also seen major changes to openness and accountability through the Freedom of Information reforms and the soon to be established Office of the Information Commissioner.

So, what is Gov2.0 and what does it mean for the Australian Public Service?

The term Gov 2.0 is a play on Web 2.0. It infers the application of Web 2.0 tools and practices to government but also infers a next generation approach to government.

Web 2.0 is generally accepted as meaning the interactive and socially connected web that many users now take for granted. An environment where ordinary citizens are able to publish, collaborate, connect with other people.

Importantly, we are seeing the expectations of citizens towards government fundamentally change. Citizens now expect greater transparency, greater engagement, more personalised and intuitive delivery of government services, less hassle in getting what they need. Citizens expect government to ask them what they think, and they expect to be heard. This places additional pressure on both the political representatives and on the public institutions.

Governments everywhere are struggling to understand and meet these new expectations, and also how to establish new and innovative ways to deliver more for less.

Last month Minister Tanner published the Declaration of Open Government on behalf of the entire Australian Government. This document outlines the vision for the future for our government and our public sector, and it has three key principles:

• Informing: strengthening citizen’s rights of access to information, establishing a pro-disclosure culture across Australian Government agencies including through online innovation, and making government information more accessible and usable;
• Engaging: collaborating with citizens on policy and service delivery to enhance the processes of government and improve the outcomes sought; and
• Participating: making government more consultative and participative.

These are important principles to reform how we do government in Australia. They lay the groundwork for a government more in tune with and responsive to the needs of citizens. They lay the groundwork for a more open, sustainable, interoperable and innovative public service. And they lay the groundwork for establishing a significant culture change in the public sector that embraces public contributions, that values and promotes the efforts of public servants, that recognises the value of collaboration across agencies and departments and more broadly with the private sector and general community.

What we are talking about here isn’t merely the use of Twitter or a prettier website. The application of Gov 2.0 principles will improve upon our very democracy.

I believe the most important documents that between them outline the direction and vision for the Australian Public Service are:

1. The Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report and accompanying government response, and
2. The Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of the Australian Government Administration report.

I’d like to work through some of the key recommendations of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce and the Ahead of the Game reports to hopefully help you understand the practical Gov 2.0 potential for your agency or department.

The Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report

The first five recommendations are around leadership and creating a culture of open government in the Australian Government.

Central recommendation: A declaration of open government by the Australian Government
Recommendation 2: Coordinate with leadership, guidance and support
Recommendation 3: Improve guidance and require agencies to engage online
Recommendation 4: Encourage public servants to engage online
Recommendation 5: Awards

The Declaration as mentioned has been announced, AGIMO has been identified as the lead agency for the implementation of this agenda with Minister Tanner and Minister Ludwig overseeing it’s implementation through their portfolios. AGIMO have set up the Gov 2.0 Showcase, and will be working closely with agencies and departments to identify and document Gov 2.0 projects, lessons learned, and best practices. They have already published some good documentation for the use of social media and other Web 2.0 tools, as well as important guidelines for accessibility and public consultation. Public servants are encouraged through these recommendations to, and I quote “open up government decision making and implementation to contributions from the community”. New awards have been established to recognise and reward the efforts of individual public servants and agencies in this space.

The next seven recommendations are largely around the management, accessibility and public availability of Public Sector Information.

Recommendation 6: Make public sector information open, accessible and reusable
Recommendation 7: Addressing issues in the operation of copyright
Recommendation 8: Information publication scheme
Recommendation 9: Accessibility
Recommendation 10: Security and Web 2.0
Recommendation 11: Privacy and confidentiality
Recommendation 12: Updating the definition of a Commonwealth Record

The opening up of Government data has been shown both here in Australia and around the world to improve transparency and accountability of government, to increase public participation and trust in government and to create new opportunities for economic growth through public and private value adding to government data sets, such as through innovative mashups or reuse for emergency responses.

The goal of the Gov 2.0 agenda is to create a pro-disclosure culture, which basically means a culture where government data is made publicly available by default, unless there is a reason to not do so, such as a privacy or security case. Opening up public sector information doesn’t just mean putting stuff online. It means publishing government data such that individuals can access, use, reuse and automate the updates of, preferably without any technical or human obstacles.

For instance, the data sets should have appropriately permissive copyright such as most of the Creative Commons licences, should be available in an open data format that people can read, should be available with as much metadata as possible such as relevant geospatial information for mapping the data set, and government data sets should not require registration or other additional time consuming steps for access.
The implementation of a good open data strategy will certainly require resources in the short term, but in the long term will simplify the management of and public access to government data.

Currently an FoI request requires at times significant resources to respond, and many of these requests would be unnecessary if more information was publicly available online. The publicly available government record would then act as an authoritative source of knowledge that citizens, and journalists for that matter, can check with and refer to.

There has already been some good work and examples of these recommendations. For instance, the 2010-2011 Federal Budget papers were published under a Create Commons licence, and there is a lot of work going into the data.gov.au public sector portal, where citizens will be able to find and access government data sets across agencies and departments.

The final recommendation is about how government can encourage investment in and contributions to open government through minimising obstacles, introducing tax incentives and appropriately recognising the info-philanthropy efforts of volunteers, not-for-profits and corporates in the community.

Recommendation 13: Encourage info-philanthropy

The report was the result of 6 months of hard work by Professor Nicholas Gruen and a team of people from companies, non-profits, community organisations and government, and it presents an excellent plan for achieving open government in Australia.

I’m proud to say that the Federal Labor Government accepted all of the recommendations with few modifications apart from a few which were allocated to the Attorney Generals Department and the Office of the Information Commissioner.

Ahead of the Game

The Ahead of the Game report incorporated many of the recommendations from the Gov 2.0 Taskforce, but went further to exploring the specific opportunities and strategies for the Australian Government Administration. Leadership is identified as extremely important in any Public Sector reforms, and people are at the centre of the recommendations, because, as the report says
“Ultimately it is people, not systems, who produce excellence and drive change”.

It identifies nine broad areas of recommendations, with four key areas:

• The first area is forging a stronger relationship with citizens through better delivery of services and through greater involvement of citizens in their government.
• The second area is strengthening the capacity of the public service to provide strategic, big picture policy and delivery advice that addresses the most difficult policy challenges of the day.
• The third area is investing in the capability of the public service workforce through improved recruitment and training processes, greater mobility and alignment of working conditions across agencies, and a new, more consistent approach to employee performance.
• The fourth area is introducing a stronger focus on efficiency and quality to ensure that agencies are agile, capable and effective, backed up by measures to help them plan and improve their performance.

The specific recommendations along with my brief explanation of each are:

Reform 1: Delivering better services for citizens
This is about improving the delivery of government services to make them more responsive, intuitive and personalised for citizens. It discusses the importance of partnering with the government, private and community sectors to get the best possible outcomes, particularly to integrate across jurisdictions so that citizens with complex needs can access what they need through a single point.

Reform 2: Creating more open government
This will create better access to public sector information, but also better online engagement with citizens through Web 2.0 approaches including the facilitation of citizen contributions to government.

Reform 3: Enhancing policy capability
This is so that public servants are supported and encouraged to develop skills and innovate for better policy and strategic outcomes. It also encourages strong partnerships with external organisations, and the incorporation of best practise regulation and project management techniques.

Reform 4: Reinvigorating strategic leadership
A stronger leadership role is encouraged for Secretaries, but also it is important to better recognise and manage the talent of public servants which would greatly improve the ability to deploy skilled people more effectively.

Reform 5: Introducing a new APSC to drive change and provide strategic planning
This reform will create a strong, efficient and forward looking APSC to really support and foster innovation and excellence throughout the entire Public Service.

Reform 6: Clarifying and aligning employment conditions
Improvements of the employment conditions of public servants through creating more consistency in wages, terms and conditions, establishing new work level standards that ensure fairness through similar remuneration for similar work and frameworks that articulate the core skills and competencies required for the public service.

Reform 7: Strengthening the workforce
To identify and respond to skills gaps and ensuring the best prepared public service possible to meet new challenges and innovate.

Reform 8: Ensuring agency agility, capability and effectiveness
Better consistency across agencies and departments in measuring capability and accountability will create better outcomes.

Reform 9: Improving agency efficiency
Creating an efficient and productive Australian Public Service.

All of the recommendations from the Ahead of the Game report create a solid blueprint for the future of our public service, a plan that enables government to take an enormous step forward in productivity, innovation, collaboration and openness, and it is a credit to Terry Moran and his team.

I am again proud to say that the government has endorsed all of the recommendations from the Ahead of the Game report.

Support

The path ahead is clear. The Federal Labor Government has committed to the recommendations of both the Gov 2.0 Taskforce and the Ahead of the Game reports, and the Gov 2.0 agenda is being implemented, so the question for all of you becomes how will your agency or department engage.

There is a lot of support for your agencies and departments in pursuing a Gov 2.0 and Open Government agenda. AGIMO as the lead Gov 2.0 agency will be an invaluable resource, especially through projects such as the Gov 2.0 Showcase to identify and document exemplar Gov 2.0 initiatives in Australia.

The Australian Government Solicitor has expertise in the legal considerations of adopting Web 2.0 and Cloud technologies, and recently ran an excellent forum compiling a large number of useful resources.

The Office of the Information Commissioner is due to open in November 2011, and will be important for advice and information about opening up Public Sector Information.

The briefing paper from the Gov 2.0 Public Sphere consultation I did last year has some excellent resources and case studies from Australia and around the world, and can be found on my website.

The Defence Signals Directorate has extensive expertise on security concerns, and their Information Security Manual is a good resource.

Finally, there is an enthusiastic and thriving local Gov 2.0 community, consisting of public servants, Web 2.0 experts, open government advocates, and much more. Encouraging your staff to actively participate in this community will create opportunities for sharing knowledge and collaboration across government and the broader community.

Internationally, governments are experimenting and sharing their Gov 2.0 experiences. It would be well worth looking over this year’s presentations at the global Gov 2.0 Expo, particularly the keynote by Tim O’Reilly.

Conclusion

Through this speech I have covered a lot of ideas and principles that are hopefully helpful to you with your Gov 2.0 strategic development. I would like to conclude with a final thought for you to consider.

Gov 2.0 presents us with many transformative changes. Such reform will require government to go out to where the citizens are, where the conversations are happening to truly engage.

However, through this change, governments can also choose to become a trusted and collaborative platform for the nation. The platform upon which new innovations can thrive, new stories can be told and new economic and social opportunities will emerge.

You don’t need to simply respond to the changing times and expectations of the 21st century, but you can choose to put yourself at the centre of the change, to be part of the change for the better.

In Australia we have long led the world in eGovernment practices, and we are already being seen as leaders in the global Gov 2.0 community due to the inspiring and enthusiastic efforts of great people in our public service.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge these efforts, and indeed recognise the achievements and contributions of the broader Gov 2.0 community in Australia.

I commend the Gov 2.0 Taskforce and the Ahead of the Game reports to you and I look forward to seeing more of your inspiring work in this space.

Thank you.

But I have a new appreciation for the complexities and stress associated with their profession now that I ‘walked in their shoes’ last Monday morning! This initiative is part of the childcare union (the LHMU) Big Steps campaign to improve the wages and conditions of childcare professionals.

It was two weeks into the federal election campaign and my first duty on Monday morning was to front up to Bruce Ridge Early Childcare Centre near Calvary hospital and literally, walk in the shoes of a childcare professional! I was pretty nervous, the whole thing was being videoed and I had no idea if the children would relate to me or if I would perform my duties adequately!

It’s been years since my children were in long day care, so it was a bit of deja-vu just being in a centre.

I was grateful to Alyce who explained how things worked and how the activity programs were organised. There was much more involved than I had ever realised. Everything was observed and cross-referenced, written down, reported back to parents and used to inform forward activity programming. Every activity has preparation and clean up and the logistics of morning tea, as an example, are demanding!

Alyce asked me to read a story, gratefully I noted it was  a favourite.  I also helped with a shaving cream painting experience! To get the full picture, the LHMU has also posted a full description about my experience on their website.

It was hard work, and the time flew by, as is the case when things are very busy. I think it was a fantastic way for the union and the members they represent to remind me, their elected representative in the federal parliament, of the value and importance of their work.

I signed a pledge which commits me to continue my advocacy for childcare professionals, including their campaign for improved wages. I am proud of federal Labor removing the TAFE Childcare Diploma fees, encouraging more recruits as well as our investment in the National Quality Framework. However, until the salaries and wages are commensurate with the skill and responsibility, they will continue to be a disincentive to holding talented professionals in the sector throughout their careers as well as attracting new people to the sector.

I look forward to following up and have invited the union to bring a delegation of childcare professionals into my workplace (hopefully I will be re-elected when parliament sits after the election. A big shout out to Yvette from the LHMU, Jessica from Bruce Ridge and Alyce, for their forebearance and encouragement, all the other staff and of course the children, who were terrific the whole morning!

Walking in the shoes of a Childcare professional

If you are living overseas and currently on the Commonwealth electoral roll, you are eligible to vote in Australian federal elections.

You can cast your vote for federal elections by either voting in person at an overseas polling place (ie. an Australian Diplomatic Mission) or by applying for a postal vote. You cannot vote electronically.

Postal vote applications (PVA) are also available from the AEC web site now that the election date has been announced. The PVA must be printed off from the web site, completed and then either faxed or posted to your nearest overseas polling place. Your ballot papers will then be sent to you. The AEC will also have special pre-poll centres set up at some airports around Australia prior to polling day so that you may vote before you leave the country.

Enrolment and voting by people outside Australia is not compulsory, however if you are going overseas you are required to inform the AEC.

You can only vote whilst overseas if you are listed on the current electoral roll are you are eligible to vote from overseas. To check whether you are enrolled please visit the AEC Online Enrolment Verification Facility, alternatively you can phone 13 23 26 in Australia or +61 2 6271 4411 from overseas or email info@aec.gov.au.

You do not have to register as an overseas elector to vote, however you should register if you are going overseas for between 12 months and 6 six years to ensure that your name remains on the roll in your absence.

Enrolment and voting by people outside Australia is not compulsory. However, if you are enrolled and you do not vote, or apply for a postal vote at a federal election, your electoral enrolment may be cancelled.

Whether you are going overseas for either a short or long period of time you should let the AEC know that you will be away from your enrolled address. If you don’t you run the risk of having your name removed from the roll.

Be quick, there is only two weeks until polling day!

Senator Lundy worked as a childcare worker for a day, and signed up to the Childcare Champion program. Details on the LHMU website at http://www.lhmu.org.au/news/walk-in-my-shoes-an-eye-opening-experience

Walk in My Shoes an eye opening experience

Senator Kate Lundy has become the ACT’s first official childcare champion. On Monday the Senator for the ACT spent the morning “walking in the shoes” of childcare professionals at a Canberra childcare centre.” The experience has given this already committed supporter of LHMU’s Big Steps in childcare campaign a new-found respect for the challenges, rewards and sheer hard work of childcare professionals.