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Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for Reform of Australian Government Administration

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Part 4 – The Blueprint for Reform

Reform 2: Creating more open government

The APS lags behind international peers in the provision of online access to government information and services and in incorporating external advice into the policy development and service design process.⁸⁴ Unlike a number of its international peers (e.g. Canada and New Zealand) the Australian Government does not survey the Australian public’s views on government service delivery. Submissions sought stronger government engagement with citizens, including through the increased use of technology.

As in many other countries, Australia faces unprecedented challenges to address citizens’ increasing demands, rising expectations and seemingly intractable social problems in a tight fiscal environment. New ways of thinking about engagement with citizens are required to develop improved solutions.

Actions to make this happen

• PM&C and Finance, in collaboration with agencies, would develop advice through the Secretaries Board for Government consideration on:
  • New approaches to consultation and collaboration that allow citizens, community groups and business to engage more effectively in how government services could be delivered – including establishing clear expectations around what government is seeking to consult or collaborate on;
  • Models for developing a partnership between citizens and government that include consultation, co-design and co-production, for example the Social Incubator model outlined in the Smith Family submission;
  • Appropriate feedback mechanisms that outline government decisions;
  • Mechanisms for consultation and collaboration using recent advances in technology, most notably Web 2.0; and
  • Models and guidelines for APS employees to engage professionally in policy and service delivery discussions, drawing on APSC protocols.⁸⁵ This would promote a diversity of ideas, enabling employees to tap into policy and service delivery expertise and also allowing employees with specialist knowledge to collaborate with a wider audience.
• Finance, in collaboration with agencies, would develop advice for Government consideration on:
  • Making public sector data open, accessible and reusable;
  • Identifying what public service data could be made publicly available and by when, taking into account national security, copyright and privacy laws;
  • Mechanisms that would enable citizens to use public sector data in new and innovative ways to benefit all, as occurred in the recent Government 2.0 mash-up⁸⁶ competition, in line with privacy, secrecy and national security laws; and
  • Options to develop further the data.australia.gov.au website.

Actions to make this happen

• The APSC would develop a survey of citizens’ views that utilises a common assessment tool and, if appropriate, the “Citizens First Survey” instrument developed in Canada to survey across three levels of  government.⁸⁷
• The APSC in consultation with agencies, would analyse existing agency surveys to:
  • Understand current views of citizens in regard to individual agencies;
  • Identify possible areas and themes to incorporate into the whole of government survey;
  • Develop a survey methodology that builds on existing surveys and tools, wherever practical, noting that changes may occur over time based on the outcomes of citizen surveys; and
  • Ensure respondent burden and duplication is minimised.
• The APSC in collaboration with agencies would develop advice for Government consideration on developing, coordinating and conducting the survey. Survey results would be reported in individual Departmental Annual Reports together with measures taken to improve citizen satisfaction with government services.
• The APSC would ensure that the survey:
  • Identifies drivers of citizen satisfaction with government services (including regulation) and opportunities for agencies to develop whole of government approaches for dealing with citizens where appropriate;
  • Seeks feedback on citizens’ direct experience with services;
  • Covers the range of programs and services delivered by Australian Government agencies, or their contracted providers;
  • Builds a better data set for benchmarking the Australian Government against other jurisdictions, including internationally, and tracking progress over time;
  • Reflects best practice approaches from the public and private sectors, for example by ensuring business goals are clearly linked to customer satisfaction; and
  • Is designed to allow expansion to other levels of government over time.

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