Introduction

The NSW Government commits to open government and does so by actively promoting a culture of open by default; facilitating the release of data; adhering to the open government information principles; and ensuring accountability, transparency and public participation through legislation and policies.

Transparency, participation and accountability in open government mean:

• the public understands the workings of their government

• the public can contribute to the workings of government by engaging with public policy processes and public service providers

• the public can hold the government to account for its policy and service delivery performance

In addition, we will continue to safeguard personal information in accordance with the highest privacy and security standards, and be transparent and ethical in how we collect, store and release personal information.

The legislative requirements that support open government

The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) recognises that the right to access information plays a key role in responsible and representative democratic Government.

The object of the GIPA Act is to open government information to the public by:

• authorising and encouraging the proactive public release of government information by agencies

• giving members of the public an enforceable right to access government information

• providing that access to government information is restricted only when there is an overriding public interest against disclosure.

Agencies should ensure that the above actions are applied to all forms of information, services and decision making, including those that involve new digital models of engagement and service delivery.

The relevant provisions are:

• proactive release of government information: sections 6, 7 and 18

• presumption in favour of release: section 5

• formal and informal applications to access information: sections 8 and 9

• agency information guides and mechanisms to promote citizen engagement: sections 20 - 21

• disclosure log of access applications: sections 25 - 26

• register of government contracts with the private sector: sections 27 - 35

• provision of information by private sector contractors: section 121.

Accountability - providing transparency to enable public scrutiny - is also provided for in section 7 of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013.

Applying Government policies that support open government

Agencies should have regard to the following policies and guidance that support open government:

• Beyond Digital Strategy

• Open Data Policy

• NSW Government AI Ethics Policy

• Information Commissioner’s Charter for Public Participation

• Information Commissioner’s Guideline about Open Data.

Having regard to these policies, agencies should:

• continue to make datasets public on their website or via data.nsw

• continue to provide customers with access to information

• continue to make engagement easier through the Premier’s Priority of Government Made Easy

• continue to consolidate information through nsw.gov.au, rather than maintaining individual agency websites

• continue to provide a one-stop shop for transacting with government through Service NSW

• increase engagement with customers and community through co-designing and, where possible,

• through use of the Whole of Government Community Engagement Platform

• increase proactive publishing of all forms of information where appropriate

• publish the source code for government software under an open licence, where possible

• ensure all publicly available information meets accessibility standards