International Access to Information Day recognises your right to access government-held information.
Join us on 28 September to celebrate International Access to Information Day (IAID), which recognises your right to access government-held information. This year in Queensland the IAID theme is ‘Mainstreaming Access to Information and Participation in the Public Sector’.
IAID raises awareness of every individual's right of access to government-held information; and the public sector’s responsibility to release information if it is in the public interest to do so. Democracies are strengthened when the community can regularly provide input into, and help shape, government decision-making in an impactful way. This is known as mainstreaming public participation in government.
According to the Open Government Partnership (an international initiative which Australia joined in 2015), this strategy can ensure more legitimate governance by establishing close links with citizens, improved public service delivery by understanding citizen’s explicitly expressed needs, and greater social cohesion.
Mainstreaming access to information and participation in the public sector go hand-in-hand. When the community can access government-held information in a timely and efficient manner, it helps individuals and the wider community to stay informed, reduces misinformation and it empowers people to make decisions about matters affecting them.
IAID is a timely reminder for public sector agencies to review how people can access government-held information. Our agency is committed to improving access to information for the community and you can find out more about how to access information from us here.
Please visit the Office of the Information Commissioner’s website for more details about IAID, information access rights as well as the Solomon Lecture which will be held on 26 September and features a keynote from Professor AJ Brown AM, a professor of public policy and law in the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University. In this role, Professor Brown specialises in public integrity, accountability, governance reform and public trust.
