15 November 2011 - Information experts from public and private sectors are gathering today at a conference in Canberra to share ideas and insights on the future direction of government information policy. The inaugural 2011 Information Policy Conference is being held to mark the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's first year of operation.  The Office was established in 2010 to oversee freedom of information, privacy, and information policy, including the strategic management of public sector information.Opened by the Hon Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information, the conference will consider public sector information as a national resource and how it can be made available for community access and use. Participants will discuss barriers to proactive publication and consider how technology can facilitate information management and exchange, while also protecting the personal information held by government.

Speaking at the pre-conference dinner last night, Senator John Faulkner said that questions of how information held by government is managed, used and released are not simple ones.

"They affect every area of government operation and in doing so touch every Australian's life in one way or another. At the core of these issues is the question of who such information belongs to: who has the right to determine how it is used or released?" Senator Faulkner said.

Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan said that a cultural shift is underway, with agencies being urged to move from a default attitude of information control to information sharing.

"A major overhaul of the Freedom of Information Act in 2010 has strengthened open government in Australia. A new objects clause declares the purpose of the FOI Act in a straightforward and profound manner: to promote Australia's representative democracy by increasing public participation in government processes and increasing scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of government actions", Professor McMillan said. "The underlying premise of the FOI Act has been declared in a similarly forthright manner: information held by the Government is to be managed for public purposes, and is a national resource".

At the conference Professor McMillan launched an issues paper [1] that commences a process of assessing the economic and social value to the community of public sector information.

"I am confident that analysis will demonstrate that the benefits of open government far outweigh the costs".

"It is widely acknowledged that information is a valuable resource. The right information at the right time can expand knowledge, enable innovation, boost productivity, and even save lives", Professor McMillan said.