Category Archives: Announcement

Join us for a 3 month, paid, full-time internship and start transforming our democracy

The OpenAustralia Foundation team and contributors redesigning street development notices at the Frontyard Hackfest 2016. Photo by Lisa Cross Are you passionate about open source technology and improving our society? Come work on the OpenAustralia Foundation’s open source projects and learn how to fix bugs in Australia’s democracy with a paid, full-time, and remote Outreachy […]

Also posted in Outreachy | 9 Responses

Right to Know, the ATO, independence and transparency

Since August 2016, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been refusing to process the valid Freedom of Information requests they receive from people using Right To Know. At least two of the people who have had their requests blocked have lodged complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). One of them is […]

Also posted in RightToKnow.org.au | Tagged | 1 Response

Our look at Australia’s current draft of its first Open Government National Action Plan

On November 13, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) wrote to the Australian Government http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Australia%20-%20Steven%20Kennedy%20-%20November%202016.pdf “This letter is to inform you that, the Government of Australia has now acted contrary to the OGP process for three consecutive action plan cycles (2014, 2015 and 2016).” Australia is now at the final stages of preparing an action plan. […]

Also posted in Open Government Partnership, OpenAustralia Foundation | 1 Response

Happy Right To Know Day – you have the Right To Know, now right across Australia

Is it safe for your children to swim in the river? How much did your council spend on that fancy new mobile app? Will we be building better public transport? How much graffiti is being reported in your area? What really happened to those stranded whales you heard about? Australia’s state and local governments create […]

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OpenAustralia Foundation responds for your Right To Know

Today the ABC reports “Tax Office imposes blanket ban on FOI requests via Right To Know website”. In the article the OpenAustralia Foundation’s response provides the context of the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) refusal to process valid FOI requests made through the Right To Know. We hope to see the ATO continue to process your requests, as they […]

Also posted in Media, RightToKnow.org.au | Tagged | 1 Response

Matthew’s back: Improving the stability and scalability of the morph.io platform

I’m very happy to be back at the Foundation for a little stint now to get my hands dirty on some coding, something I haven’t had any opportunity to do over the last year. It’s funny how you can miss these things! As you might have noticed, I’ve been away from working on morph.io and […]

Also posted in Development, Morph | 1 Response

Ask Your Local Councillors

PlanningAlerts makes it easy to impact what happens to your local buildings, parks, streets, and infrastructure. Over the last 7 years almost 40,000 people have signed up for alerts and thousands of you have made official comments on development applications for everyone to see. But there are more ways to impact what gets built and […]

Also posted in PlanningAlerts.org.au | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to make an OGP National Action Plan commitment

Photo by stevendepolo on Flickr (cc by 2.0) Australia has only 5 months to define ambitious open government reforms for its first Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan. In this time we must gather raw ideas, research, discuss and deliberate them into fully developed, budgeted, and agreed commitments. In July the government must announce […]

Also posted in Open Government Partnership, Open Government Partnership, OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org, They Vote For You | Tagged , , , , | 3 Responses

Matthew and the Digital Transformation Office

The Digital Transformation Office was established in July of this year, by the then Minister, now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to transform government and make government services simpler, clearer, faster and more humane. The cornerstone of this huge endeavour is putting users first. Design and build government services for people, not for government and all […]

Also posted in OpenAustralia Foundation | Tagged , , | 4 Responses

A step forward for open government in NSW and the NT

Millions of people in New South Wales and the Northern Territory can now easily make requests for information from their governments and local councils. We’ve added hundreds of new authorities to Right To Know that cover state, territory, and local government in NSW and the NT. Right To Know makes it simple for you discover […]

Also posted in RightToKnow.org.au | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Responses