PM&C endorses Open Government Action Plan

The federal government is on track to appoint a permanent National Data Commissioner by no later than the end of next year, as part of the second phase of its Open Government National Action Plan.

The second-phase plan, which was officially endorsed by the government last week and covers the period between 2018–2020, includes formal commitments to appoint the National Data Commissioner, as well as the planned National Data Advisory Council to advise the commissioner.

As part of the plan, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has committed to consulting across government through this council and with the Open Government Forum to implement planned data governance reforms aimed at improving the sharing, use and re-use of public sector data.

In August, the department appointed public sector veteran and former IP Australia Deputy Director General for Policy and Corporate Deborah Anton as the interim National Data Commissioner.

The implementation timeline for the second-phase plan stipulates that the permanent commissioner is on track to be appointed within the implementation period, which covers the current quarter through to the fourth quarter of next year.

The first guidance and standards published by the commissioner are meanwhile expected to be published between Q3 of 2019 and Q3 of 2020.

Consultation on the design of the planned Data Sharing and Release Act, aimed at fostering the planned open data improvements, is meanwhile expected to commence shortly.

Another component of the second-phase action plan involves improving transparency and accountability in government procurement through increasing compliance with the Open Contracting Data Standard.

The government has committed to progressing the publication of existing procurement data using the Open Contracting Data Standard schema by publishing additional AusTender data on its data.gov.au open government data portal.

The project to publish this dataset is underway, and is on track to be complete in the fourth quarter.

Last week, PM&C opened nominations for the civil society members of the next Open Government Forum. This forum will be tasked, among other responsibilities, with helping to develop the third Open Government National Action Plan for 2020–22.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/vege

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