Open and Transparent Government

Government has released a Declaration on open and transparent government in New Zealand. Read the joint announcement by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Internal Affairs here.

This states that "Building on New Zealand’s democratic tradition, the government commits to actively releasing high value public data". Read the full Declaration here.

It has also released the New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles.They state that data and information must be open, trusted and authoritative, well managed, readily available, without charge where possible and re-usable. Personal and classified information must be protected.

Read the Principles here.

Read the Cabinet Paper and Cabinet Minute here.

For further information, email opendata@linz.govt.nz.

Implementation of the Declaration and Principles

Agencies will commit to releasing high value public data actively for re-use, in accordance with the declaration and the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) Review and Release process.

Public data refers to non-personal and unclassified data.

The Declaration applies to all public service departments, the New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Defence Force, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. Government is also encouraging State Services agencies and inviting State Sector agencies and the local government sector to adopt this approach.

The Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group is sponsoring a programme of guidance and advice to support agencies manage and release their data and information.  This is being developed by the Open Government Data and Information Working Group.

Chief Executives will submit their plans to actively release public data to portfolio Ministers for approval. The Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group will report the aggregate plans annually to the Ministerial Committee on Government ICT.