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 Open Government - Open Government Forum 2001 Date: 3rd November 2003 Subject Heading: Accountability, Government In December 2001, I hosted a forum on Open Government at NSW Parliament, as a way of bringing to light the appalling state of public access to government information. The introduction below is part of my opening address at the forum. Real Freedom of Information The distinguished historian, Professor Manning Clarke, said we had 3 classes here, squatters, overseers and convicts. The squatters were given everything because they were the right sorts of chaps. The overseers tugged their forelocks to them and were very cruel to the convicts, and of course the convicts didn't trust anybody and thought they were all crooks. I don't think we have changed all that much. We now have multinationals, governments and citizens. We tug our forelocks to the multinationals; the overseer governments fawn on them but are unwilling to give even the most basic information to their citizens. And citizens distrust everybody. We need to change that paradigm to a more open and enlightened system. I think the problem with the Freedom of Information Act is that it nibbles at the bottom. What we want to do is turn the paradigm upside down so that the Government has to justify why it keeps information rather than have us justify why we want some. The whistleblowers are of course a very frustrated group. They try to say things in the public interest and they end up in mutual support groups, discouraged by the fact that they haven't been backed up. The people that have to give out the information, the Freedom of Information Officers, are still much more frightened of their bosses than they are of the Act and, of course, that means that not much information comes through. We are all the poorer for that. I think that basically, what Governments have to realise is that the information belongs to the people. They don't own the country; they are managing it in our interest; they are managing our money. That is the key thing that has to be made clear to Governments. That is the paradigm that we need to change and I hope hat the people we have assembled today, who are absolutely first rate, can tell us other means of doing it and how it is done elsewhere so we can get together and act. We must take the best of world practice and make New South Wales second to none in the management of information. It must be said that we have a long way to go. |
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Issue: Government Processes Project: Open Government
Speakers Kerry Chikarovski Sir Brian Elwood Kt Bach John Hall Ross Coulthart Chris Puplick Questions & Answers Pt 1 Bronwyn Keighely-Gerardy Maeve McDonagh Rick Snell Chris Wheeler Questions & Answers Pt 2 Closing Address - ACE Other Resources On the net or online Background Briefing |
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