Open Gov Week
The week of 16-20 May 2022 was Open Gov Week (OGW). The week is a global call to action to transform the way governments serve their citizens.
To celebrate OGW, we showcased some of New Zealand’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) success stories via OGP NZ Twitter and Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission social media channels (inc. LinkedIn). You're most welcome to re-share these stories on your channels.
National Action Plan Workshops
Many thanks to our Expert Advisory Panel, civil society groups, and government agencies for your involvement with the April-May fourth National Action Plan (NAP) workshops.
The workshops are based on the four sub themes, agreed with the Minster in the Joint Report: Potential focus areas for New Zealand’s fourth OGP NAP:
- Access to and usability of public information – 11 April
- Enabling participation by individuals and groups – 2 May
- Government use of data and personal information – 16 May
- Information to support financial accountability of the government – 30 May.
The OGP NZ team is now looking at the fledgling commitments worked up in Workshop 1 “Access to and usability of public information”, to progress these to become potential commitments. These are:
- Developing a central information repository for government information
- Improving government procurement information transparency
- Improving public access to facilitate better engagement with government
- Addressing disinformation and misinformation risks.
Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022
Significant improvements are set for New Zealand workplaces to better protect whistleblowers, with the final reading of the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 completed on 10 May.
The 2022 Act, which replaces the Protected Disclosures Act 2000, will come into effect on 1 July. Applying across both the public and private sectors, the new Act will make the protected disclosures regime easier to access, understand, and use.
Reflecting the OGP NZ vision, this new legislation will help reinforce New Zealand’s international reputation as a free and transparent society.
For more details, check out Government bolsters protection for whistleblowers. New guidance for public sector agencies is available on the Te Kawa Mataaho Protected Disclosures page.