Australia’s Third National Action Plan

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The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

As an OGP member, Australia must produce a national action plan that sets out commitments that the government will deliver within a 2- or 4-year timeframe.

Australia has released 3 national action plans. Find out more about Australia's previous national action plans (NAP1 and NAP2).

The Australian Government worked with civil society to develop Australia's Third National Action Plan (NAP3), which was published on 15 December 2023 and captures an ambitious plan for open government, transparency and accountability.

Australia’s Third National Action Plan (NAP3)

NAP3 was co-designed by the 2023 Open Government Forum consistent with the co-creation process. The forum was established to design commitments and refine these under the 5 Guiding Principles (see below). Commitments arose from a broad pool of suggestions based on government and civil society expertise and public consultation. The forum identified 8 commitments that would most benefit from the ongoing engagement and oversight by the forum. These commitments collectively aim to further open government, enhance accountability and strengthen integrity.

Download NAP3

Commitment Progress Reports

NAP3 comprises 8 commitments:

  • Commitment 1: Create transparency in the use of automated decision making and artificial intelligence
  • Commitment 2: Youth advisory groups
  • Commitment 3: An Integrity Strategy for the Commonwealth Public Sector
  • Commitment 4: Beneficial ownership reform
  • Commitment 5: Integrity and accountability in procurement and grants
  • Commitment 6: Public sector whistleblower protections
  • Commitment 7: Transparent political donations and truth in political advertising
  • Commitment 8: Improve media literacy in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including to counter the impacts of mis- and dis-information.

The Open Government Forum receives regular progress updates from government commitment leads on how entities are implementing the National Action Plan milestones.

After each forum meeting, we publish commitment implementation progress reports. You can find these under Forum meetings on our Open Government Forum page.

Australia's co-creation process

Consistent with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) co-creation minimum standards, the forum agreed on a co-creation process that set out how the commitments under the NAP3 would be collaboratively designed between government, civil society and other key stakeholders.

Learn more about the co-creation process:

The themes for NAP3

As a first step in the co-creation process, the forum identified 3 themes that guided the development and selection of NAP3 commitments. These were:

  1. Public participation and engagement
  2. Government and corporate sector integrity
  3. Strengthening democratic processes.

The forum established working groups to consider each of these themes, and potential commitments, in more detail. Learn more about the working groups, including their terms of reference.

Guiding principles for NAP3 commitments

The forum also identified 5 guiding principles to help prioritise and select NAP3 commitments.

It was not possible to include all suggested commitments in NAP3. The forum considered how suggested commitments align with these guiding principles.

An extract from the NAP3 OGP Guiding Principles is set out below:

 Relevance

  • Is the commitment relevant to open government and would fulfilling the commitment ensure that the Australian Government is more accountable and transparent?
  • Will fulfilling the commitment advance one or more of the open government principles (transparency, inclusive participation, accountability, innovation and ambition)?
  • Does this commitment address a clearly identified problem?
    • Is this problem a minor, moderate or high risk to the principles of open government in the Australian context?
  • Does this commitment expand upon international best practice?
  • Can this commitment be pursued through an open government lens and can we continue to build upon the commitment in the future?

Community views

  • Are relevant stakeholders supportive of this commitment and is there interest in this commitment from a diverse range of community groups?
  • Does the implementation of this commitment respond to feedback received from civil society, the media, academia, the private sector or other community groups?
  • Should further consideration be given to how we can engage with diverse community representatives in the development and implementation of this commitment?

Alignment

  • Have we confirmed that commitments are not in opposition to government priorities/reform activities while also ensuring proposed commitments prioritise innovation and ambition?
  • Does the commitment complement current initiatives?

Impact

  • Can the entity that would be responsible for implementing the recommendation be identified?
  • Are there existing identifiable resources within civil society, the private sector or government who can carry out, or assist with carrying out, this commitment?
  • Can we identify the community groups that would benefit from the implementation of this commitment?
  • Does the commitment further social justice in Australian society?
  • Once the commitment has been achieved, can we continue to build on the outcomes over the course of further National Action Plan processes using the data that has been collected?
  • Is it possible to measure the ambition, fulfilment and impact of the commitment and what sources of evidence will we use to do this?

Timeframes

  • Can the commitment be achieved within the OGP 2-year National Action Plan timeframe?
    • If not, could a proposed commitment be modified to take relevant timeframes into consideration?
  • Should the topic be noted as a topic of interest in the NAP3 and considered as a future commitment in the NAP4 or as an OGP Future Interest Topic (OGP FIT)?

Public consultation

The Open Government Forum held 2 formal public consultation surveys to inform the development of the NAP3.

  • Phase 1: Public consultation closed on 17 September 2023.
  • Phase 2: Public consultation closed on 22 November 2023.

Phase 1: August 2023 – September 2023

  • The co-creation process
  • Working group themes:
    1. Public participation and engagement
    2. Government and corporate sector integrity
    3. Strengthening democratic processes.

See the Public Consultation Analysis report for a summary of the feedback received during the phase 1 consultation. Published consultation responses can be found on the OGP Consultations website.

Phase 2: November 2023

  • Draft commitments for the Third National Action Plan:
    1. Automated decision-making and responsible use of artificial intelligence
    2. Youth advisory groups
    3. Commonwealth Integrity Strategy
    4. Beneficial ownership reform
    5. Integrity and accountability in procurement and grants
    6. Commonwealth whistleblower protections
    7. Transparent political donations and truth in political advertising
    8. Combatting misinformation in non-English-speaking communities

See the Public Consultation Analysis report for a summary of the feedback received during the phase 2 consultation. Read published consultation responses on our Consultation hub.

News and updates

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Contact details

Attorney-General's Department
3­­–5 National Circuit BARTON ACT 2600
OpenGovernment@ag.gov.au

Related websites

Open Government Partnerships
OGP Australia