Engagement and partnership in co-creating Australia’s Third National Action Plan

By Elizabeth Godfrey – Attorney-General’s Department

 

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

As an OGP member, Australia must release regular National Action Plans detailing ongoing work to further openness and integrity in government. These National Action Plans are co-created between government, civil society, and other key stakeholders. 

On 15 December 2023, the Attorney-General released Australia’s third Open Government Partnership National Action Plan (NAP3) which was the result of the work and collaboration of civil society and government members through Australia’s Open Government Forum (the Forum).

 

Photograph of Open Government Forum members outside the Attorney-General’s Department for Forum meeting #3 Image L to R: Row 1: Tim Lo Surdo; Prof Charles Sampford; Simon Newnham, AGD; Anooshe Mushtaq; Kate Auty; Prof Anne Twomey; Maree Bridger, DITRDCA; Row 2: Alan Wu, OGP; Helen Wilson, APSC; Rebecca Mackinnon; Penny McKay, Office of Commonwealth Ombudsman; Kyle Redman Row 3: Tom Dickson, Treasury; Andrew Walter, PM&C; Elizabeth Hampton, OAIC; Scott Dilley, Finance Not pictured (online attendees): Elizabe

Photograph of Open Government Forum members outside the Attorney-General’s Department for Forum meeting #3
Image L to R:
Row 1: Tim Lo Surdo; Prof Charles Sampford; Simon Newnham, AGD; Anooshe Mushtaq; Kate Auty; Prof Anne Twomey; Maree Bridger, DITRDCA;
Row 2: Alan Wu, OGP; Helen Wilson, APSC; Rebecca Mackinnon; Penny McKay, Office of Commonwealth Ombudsman; Kyle Redman
Row 3: Tom Dickson, Treasury; Andrew Walter, PM&C; Elizabeth Hampton, OAIC; Scott Dilley, Finance
Not pictured (online attendees): Elizabeth Tydd, Dr Tania Penovic, and Cindy He

The establishment of the Forum was one of a number of different engagement methods to maximise positive, meaningful participation by government and civil society in the NAP3 co-creation process. The Forum consisted of 9 government members and 9 civil society members; including 1 government and 1 civil society co-chair.

The Forum agreed to proceed with a co-creation process consisting of 3 phases:

  • outreach
  • deliberation, and
  • approval.

The outreach phase involved seeking public input on drafts of the Forum’s work via a consultation platform provided by the Attorney-General's Department.

During 2 rounds of public consultation, the Forum sought feedback from a broad cross-section of society, including geographic location, age, gender and cultural diversity. In order to ensure that participants were able to engage fully with our material and provide informed input, we offered links to supplementary information wherever possible within our consultation surveys which ensured participants had the best information without being a time-consuming process. Additionally, we ensured that consultation was conducted in plain English and restricted the use of government terminology which removed barriers to engagement and participation experienced by citizens.

The deliberation phase involved the Forum developing and using 5 Guiding Principles to select and prioritise the most impactful commitments for inclusion in NAP3. These Principles were:

  • Relevance: whether the commitment properly addressed accountability, transparency and open government.
  • Community views: ensuring that relevant stakeholders and groups are supportive of this commitment, and that the implementation of this commitment would address feedback given by civil society.
  • Alignment: whether the proposed commitment is in opposition to any ongoing government priorities or reform activities.
  • Impact: ensuring that implementation of the commitment would have real benefit to Australian society, and that the entity that would be responsible for that implementation can be clearly identified.
  • Timeframes: whether the proposed commitment is achievable within the two-year NAP timeframe.

Forum members were arranged into working groups, co-chaired by both civil society and government members. Each working group autonomously workshopped commitment ideas, engaged with subject matter experts to provide insights on commitments; and prioritised commitments for further consideration by the Forum. One working group decided to hire a pro-bono professional facilitator to navigate the decision-making process. Working groups found incredible value in drawing from stakeholders’ experience and ideas from both government and civil society. Building trust, open dialogue and providing space for members to express a diversity of viewpoints was critical to the ultimately positive outcome of the co-creation process.

 

Image of Australia’s Pathway to NAP3 – co-creation infographic

Approval of the NAP was reach by consensus of government and civil society members of the Forum and commits the Australian Government to delivering 8 important initiatives to improve public participation and engagement in government, strengthen integrity in government and the corporate sector, and enhance Australia’s democratic processes.

The commitments in this Plan will:

  1. create transparency in the use of automated decision making and responsible use of artificial intelligence,
  2. improve public participation of youth in government,
  3. further strengthen integrity within the Commonwealth public sector,
  4. build a pathway towards a beneficial ownership register,
  5. increase accountability and transparency in procurements and grants,
  6. improve protections for public sector whistleblowers,
  7. strengthen transparency in political donations and political advertising,
  8. improve media literacy in vulnerable communities to address mis- and dis information.

Explore more

If you wish to read more about Australia’s role in Open Government Partnership, visit our website.

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