Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

community through the proactive use of ICT by the ACTPS in delivering services andmanaging its administration.The plan is designed to:• make living in Canberra easier by developing, with the Community, an integrated,comprehensive and affordable range of readily accessible online services;• improve return on investment on public expenditure on ICT through implementing andsharing higher quality, more resilient systems;• use ICT to promote open government and online community engagement;• contribute to the achievement of its environmental targets by improving the energyefficiency of its ICT infrastructure and promoting the use of ICT to assist othersustainability initiatives; and• develop its workforce and partnerships to provide the future capacity and skills toimplement its ICT programs and strategies.The ICT Strategic plan is intended to apply to all areas of the ACT Government. It willestablish clear business objectives for the ACT Government’s use of, and investment in, ICT.A simple example of the use to which information held by the Government can be put is thepublication of historical sales data on the Allhomes website. 146 Traditional means ofaccessing this information involve cumbersome searches and costs in terms of time andmoney. Making information available in this way is valuable to the citizenry.The Review recommends all FOI Act decisions made by the ACTPS be published on acentral website immediately after they are provided to applicants (with personal informationdeleted). This approach reflects the reality that release of a document under FOI is release“to the world” and would enhance the availability of information, and scrutiny of andaccountability for decisions and actions.The ACT’s arrangements for release of historical Cabinet Papers are already nation-leadingwith papers generally being available under the Territory Records Act 2002 (the TerritoryRecords Act) after ten years. Before the next general election for the Assembly, and for thefirst time since the Executive Documents Release Act 2001 was enacted, the Cabinet papersof a sitting Government will become available for public access.Of interest here is the Welsh Assembly Government practice. The Welsh Cabinet’s policy isto “conduct its business as openly as possible” and as a result, it publishes “the minutes,papers and agendas of its meetings unless there are overriding reasons not to. Minutes andpapers are published as soon as possible following clearance at the next meeting but nosooner than six weeks after the respective meeting.” 147 In practice, this means the agenda, a146 Seewww.allhomes.com.au147 Welsh Assembly Government (2010) “Cabinet Meetings” http://wales.gov.uk/about/cabinet/cabinetmeetings/?lang=enGoverning the City State: 92