Queensland Regional Natural Resource Management Groups Collective submission
14 March 2011
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601
Response to Towards an Australian Government Information Policy Regional Groups Collective February 2011
The Regional Groups Collective welcomes the development of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and looks forward to the strengthening of the commission to provide advice to government on policy and practice on how government collects, stores, manages, uses and discloses information. In doing so the Regional Groups Collective looks forward to greater, and timely, access to publicly funded information resources.
The Queensland Regional NRM Groups Collective (the Regional Groups Collective) was formed in 2002 and has as its member base the 14 regional natural resource management bodies in Queensland. The Collective function is to improve the state-wide delivery of regional NRM outcomes in partnership with industry, community and government, and to act as a peak body for natural resource management in Queensland.
The Collective is funded by those members – the 14 regional natural resource management bodies in Queensland, along with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management and the Australian Government through Caring for Our Country.
With regard to the proposed approach towards developing an Australian Government Information Policy, the Regional Groups Collective wishes to comment on the following points of interest.
It is noted, there is some divergence from the majority of cited reports in relation to free access to information and the principles of the paper. It is clear the proposed principles provide latitude to interpretation of the term free, and as such, will allow for distortions and thus support the ongoing shift towards increased cost recovery by agencies. The proposed principles created a dichotomy between responsibility and accessibility. Noted in principles:
1. Open access to information - a default position. Information held by the Australian Government is a valuable national resource. As recommended by the Government 2.0 Taskforce, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary, access to that information should be open, that is: free
5. Sound decision-making processes: Sound agency decision-making in relation to open access to public sector information can be achieved by: embedding the presumption that agency information should be published free, on open licensing terms, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.
8. Appropriate charging for access: The principle of open access to public sector information requires that the cost of access to individuals is not unreasonably restrictive. Appropriate charging for access to information can be achieved by…
It is clear the principles support service delivery and access charging of public sector information. The Regional Groups Collective concludes this position will inhibit open accessibility, slow innovation, and limit the ability of Queensland’s NRM community, and its largely volunteer labour base from accessing information. In doing so the Regional Groups Collective believes the Australian Government position will set the founding position followed by state agencies, thus compounding the issue.
Further the Regional Groups Collective recognises the principles only extend to ‘information held by the Australian Government’ and not information created or funded by Australian Government. As outlined in the paper the OECD has defined public sector information as 'information, including information products and services, generated, created, collected, processed, preserved, maintained, disseminated, or funded by or for the Government or public institution'. The Regional Groups Collective believes the narrowing of scope of public sector information places individuals and organisations contributing to actions to improve our natural environment at great disadvantage.
The Regional Groups Collective believes for the Australian agricultural sector to maintain a competitive edge in global markets, whilst balancing maintenance and improvement to conditions to natural assets (water/soil/atmospheric quality), all possible attempts should be made to remove barriers to innovation and knowledge adoption. Thus attention is drawn to SOE (State of Environment) reports that show unyielding decline of all major environmental services, inclusive from European settlement to the introduction of state and commonwealth investment aimed at improving resource and asset condition.
The Regional Groups Collective suggests all publicly funded public sector information, and that as defined by the QECD, should fall under the jurisdiction of the principles and that of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. This includes all research and products created and held by public funded institutions, such as Australian and State Government statutory authorities, including: Rural and Research Development bodies, CRCs, Universities, the Bureau of Meteorology and the like. In recognition of intellectual property rights, of both author and institution, and contractual arrangements with private entities, the Regional Groups Collective supports and echoes Priority 5: The innovation system encourages a culture of collaboration within the research sector and between researchers and industry, as outlined in the 2009 Aust Govt report ‘Powering Ideas An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century’. As such supports the Australian Government reform of intellectual property laws to build upon and value openness to innovation.
In recognition of this submission the Regional Groups Collective wishes to be advised on further development of policy and principle review made by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
