Federal ALP puts toe in water on transparency

It's good to see that Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, sees greater transparency as one of the ways of improving government processes. Last week he said that a national, online, searchable database that would allow anyone to track development applications, would produce significant efficiency gains, and improve decision making with the potential to reduce housing costs by 15%.

While many local councils in NSW already provide such a tracking service, no one to date has identified the savings or improvements that have resulted. In any event greater openness in these processes is a step forward in accountability.

But Mr. Rudd, why stop there?

If you put your mind to it there are a whole range of potential improvements that would come from disclosure of information about the conduct of public functions, at all levels of government.

Let's hope the Federal ALP takes a broad and comprehensive look at the wide range of possible improvements that would come from greater transparency in government.