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Victorian government takes up the open access agenda

1 state down, 5 more & a couple of territories to go! Via net traveller, news that the Victorian government is holding an inquiry on improving access to public sector information, with a focus on the potential for open content licensing. The terms of reference specifically mention Creative Commons. The discussion paper can be downloaded here. Submissions close on August 22, 2008.

They work for us

Good news. In a testament to the parallel evolution of ideas, it turns out that one of the projects I advocated at the 2020 Summit was already being built at the time: "In the absence of philanthropic funding for such a project, a one-off endowment should be made to a suitable organisation, for example the ANU’s Democratic Audit, to set up and maintain a website similar to the UK’s http://www.theyworkforyou.com/" Well, in the absense of … more

A New Progressive Consensus?

Miriam Lyons So You Think You Can Think? Suddenly ideas are sexy. The Australia 2020 Summit has done for Deep Thought what Australian Idol did for karaoke – what was once a mildly embarrassing hobby best practised under cover of drunkenness is now played live to a national audience. Like music professors asked to comment on the success of Idol, most of the wonks who went through the last two days can’t quite decide whether … more

 

What about the fourth estate?

Questions from the background paper which are relevant to this discussion: How well are the media performing their role as the fourth estate – making Government accountable? What accountabilities should bind the government and the media? Is the new media – the internet and blogs – a real answer to questions about the oversight of Government by our established media? I’ll try to address each of these in turn, drawing on and updating some ideas … more

5 2020 ideas in 5 minutes

Ahead of the 2020 Summit, this instalment of ‘5 ideas in 5 minutes’ presents a selection of the ideas floated by participants so far: 1. The idea: Open-access government Who: Miriam Lyons 2020 Stream: Future of Australian governance “We need wide-ranging reforms to the way that government owned or funded information is made available to the public, based on the following principles: * FOI requests should be a last resort: online publishing should be the … more

Your ideas on the future of Australian governance

So, I’ve been invited to attend the upcoming Australia 2020 Ideas Summit. Here’s the spiel on the section that I’ll be attending: TITLE: The future of Australian governance: open government (including the role of the media), the structure of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. The Australian Government is committed to greater access to freedom of information, effective parliamentary reform and removing as many dysfunctional dimensions to the Australian Federation as possible. The … more

 

CPD health fact sheets

Health policy has been one of the CPD’s areas of focus since we launched in May 2007. So far, we’ve produced a detailed vision for health reform in A Health Policy for Australia: Reclaiming Universal Health Care, and followed up with A New Approach to Primary Care for Australia, which was cited in the ALP’s health policy. And we’re becoming sought after as a source of expert analysis on health. But we know that not … more

Are these promises built to last?

The election campaign trail is a bad place to go looking for good policies. As CPD fellow Mark Bahnisch writes over at New Matilda: "The flim-flammery of symbolic and wasteful promises is a function of treating politics as a horse race…we, the voters, are not treated as if we’re seriously concerned about how policies affect our lives and the whole show runs along its merry way as if politics didn’t matter, except to that hermetic … more