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In another welcome development the Department of Finance and Deregulation has added new information and opinion to public discussion and debate on a range of important issues including fiscal, budget and government efficiency challenges, in publishing the incoming Government Briefs provided to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, and the Special Minister of State. A quick browse reinforces the sentiment expressed by Lenore Taylor in the SMH on reading Treasury's books, that it "is like reaching a lush island of sanity in the sea of empty sloganeering we struggled through during the election campaign," and serves to broaden the relevance of her observation regarding Treasury comments about population targets that "the entire election debate was a lot of hot air designed to feed back to marginal seat voters the fears they were expressing in focus groups."

The brief prepared for Special Minister of State Gary Gray confirms he not Finance Minister Wong will be responsible for the Australian Government Information Management Office including Gov 2.0 which will be part of a new Government Business Office. The brief brings the minister up to speed on the Declaration of Open Government that passed most by when issued by former Minister for Finance Tanner the day before the election was called in July.

Suggestions to the minister under "Action required in 2010" hardly position this as an important whole of government issue requiring strong and constant leadership and reinforcement from the top, although Minister Wong at least got a copy of the brief in her folder. The Department urges Mr Gray to endorse the Declaration's principles "possibly via an opening post on the AGIMO blog" (the Gov 2.0 Task Force report recommended for good reason that it come in the first place from the Prime Minister) and "(a)gree a process for working with Senators and Members with particular interests in this area (we will provide separate advice on this.") The cause of open government will need more and stronger nurturing than this.

No sign yet of the brief prepared by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for the Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information but that would be a helpful input  to public understanding on the lie of the land in a related area.

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