2.0 challenge is cultural, not technical: Tanner

James Riley
Monday, 19 October 2009 07:25

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The challenge for Government in building 2.0-style community engagement was in balancing a free exchange of ideas with the security and impartiality required for policy development, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said.

And the efforts of Government 2.0 advocates will come to little without a remaking of public service culture and process, no matter how innovative the technology available.

Speaking at the CeBIT Global Conferences event in Canberra this morning, Mr Tanner said the public service needed to be encouraged to “proactively” disseminate and participate in public discussion.

"The challenges are not in identifying and applying technology, but in dealing with the cultural and procedural changes necessary to take advantage of the opportunities the technology presents us," Mr Tanner said.

"The desire to be more open, innovative and collaborative must be balanced with the other elements of responsible government – the need to be secure, impartial and efficient, and to maintain an appropriate level of separation between members of Parliament and public servants," he said.

"The difficulty and importance of this challenge is often overlooked. Yet there are few more important steps for achieving the objectives of Government 2.0 than equipping public servants with the skills, tools and permission to engage."

"It would be a mistake for Government 2.0 advocates to see the public service as simply an organisation in need of an upgrade."

The public is already well served by the Australian Public Service – which ultimately produces most of the policies and services delivered by Government – so the ambition was not to “wipe and re-program” the whole of the public sector.

"But the success of government 2.0 will not be assured unless the principles and practices of the agenda are embraced by public servants as central to how they do business," Mr Tanner said.

Mr Tanner said the Rudd Government plans to deploy a National Broadband Network would necessarily have an impact on both Government service delivery, as well as 2.0-style public engagement.

"The opportunities that ubiquitous, serious broadband will open up just underline the importance of this agenda," Mr Tanner told iTWire. "Because if you have greater capacity for people to access Government data, then you have greater capacity to actually use the data."

"There is no question that along with everything else getting serious broadband across the country will I think make an enormous difference (to Government service delivery and community engagement)."

Mr Tanner told iTWire there should be no reason to delay passage of telecommunications reform legislation which is before the Parliament.