1. Government information policy: Access
to public sector information
Presentation to CAUL meeting no 2. 2012

2. Some key developments
Year Report/change
1964 Commonwealth Parliamentary Select Committee on Parliamentary
and Government Publications report (Erwin report)
1997 Management of Government Information as a National Strategic
Resource (Wainwright report)
1997 AGPS moves to NOIE
2006 Joint Committee on Publications Distribution of the Parliamentary
Papers Series
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3. Year Report/change
2009 Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0
2010 Electronic distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series
2010 FoI Act changes
Establishment of Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner
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4. Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC)
Government information responsibilities:
• FoI
• Privacy
• Information policy
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5. Policy responsibilities include
• Attorney Generals Department
• Department of Finance and Deregulation,
including AGIMO – some changes
recommended by Williams report 2012
(http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/policy-guides-procurement/review-of-the-
operational-activities-and-structure-of-agimo/)
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6. 6

7. Towards an Australian Government
Information Policy
Principles on open public sector information
1: Open access to information – a default position
2: Engaging the community
3: Effective information governance
4: Robust information asset management
5: Discoverable and useable information
6: Clear reuse rights
7: Appropriate charging for access
8: Transparent enquiry and complaints processes
http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers/issues_paper1_towards_australian
_government_information_policy.pdf
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8. Major developments
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9. FoI
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10. But what has happened to government
publishing?
• Devolved responsibilities
• Overall trend reduction in “publications” of
around 50% over the past decade
(recorded in NBD)
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11. Challenges: finding
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12. One agency – a decade of change
• 2001 publications – where did online publications go?
Agency A: 2001 online publications
locations in 2011
On agency
No longer website
available online 28%
29%
Pandora
24%
On another
website
(university, OECD)
19%
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13. Agency in 2011
• Consistent with figures from the NBD which show reduced publishing (NBD)
by about 50% from 2001 to 2011.
• Now majority are online.
120%
100%
80%
Not online
60%
Online
40%
20%
0%
2001 2011
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14. Commonwealth government publications recorded in NBD
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
Titles
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
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15. Information publications scheme (IPS)
• specifies categories of information that
must be published
• 2012 OAIC survey
– 94% have an IPS plan
– 95% have a senior officer with IPS
responsibilities
– 85% publish on their website information
required under the FOI Act
http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/reports/IPS_survey_report.html
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16. But
• Accessibility:
– 20% documents published under the IPS are in a
format (or multiple formats) which conform to WCAG
2.0 requirements,
– 30% most of their documents comply,
– 44% some documents comply, and
– 5% none of their documents comply
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17. Discoverability
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18. Issues: Long term access
– Agencies often have only the most up to date
manual or guidance
– Around 10% of material is not online (see
http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/2
008-09_Audit_Report_37.pdf and this study)
– Directories - only latest information online
– Machinery of government changes mean
website addresses change and documents
are “archived” or lost
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19. Issues
• Metadata – how can we find information?
– Gaps in metadata now
• Awareness
– Parliamentary papers – strong knowledge of
standards
– IPS - strong knowledge
– Long term access and discovery less
• Data
– A plateau?
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20. Top 6 issues from survey
• moving to open licensing,
• complying with web accessibility guidelines,
• applying metadata to documents,
• adopting charging policies that balance openness and
commercialisation,
• creating governance aligned to a proactive release
culture, and
• getting leadership support for this cultural change.
http://www.oaic.gov.au/news/speeches/john_mcmillan/enabling_tomorrows_open_govern
ment_august2012.html

21. Developments
• News from the NLA - Pandora plans to
harvest all Financial Management and
Accountability Act Agencies
• Government libraries under threat
(example Queensland) – who will ensure
organised collections of agency
publications and public access in the
future?
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