Open Government: Meanwhile, in the UK...

The New Zealand government is currently pissing about on the development of its next Open Government Partnership national action plan, delaying submission so it can consult on how to consult (yes, really). Meanwhile, the UK used the London Anti Corruption summit to release theirs, over a month before the deadline. How did they manage this? Firstly, they started public consultations in July last year, when our government was still failing to publish its midterm self-assessment, and hadn't even begun to think about action plan development. Which I guess you can do it you have more than one person working on it...

The full action plan is here. The first commitment? Expanding beneficial ownership reporting - a centrepiece of their previous action plan - to include foreign companies which buy or own property in the UK. Meaning no more corrupt Russian oligarchs buying mansions in London through Cayman Islands front companies...

But there's more in there as well. An anti-corruption strategy. Implementing the Open Contracting Partnership's Open Contracting Data Standard, allowing civil society to easily monitor government business. Improving proactive disclosure and updating their Freedom of Information Act Code of Practice. There's a lot of open data bullshit, of course - governments love this because its a cheap way to claim transparency without changing anything substantive - but there are also some solid, useful commitments which will produce real change.

Interestingly, there's also a commitment to a "rolling action plan", with co-created commitments to be added at least twice over the action plan cycle. From the UK, with its proven record on co-creation, this looks credible. If New Zealand were to make the same promise, it would simply be laughable.

And that's the real shocker: because the approaches of NZ and the UK to the OGP are the complete opposite of what we expect. New Zealand is supposed to be a leader on transparency, yet our OGP involvement has been characterised by secrecy and timidity. Meanwhile, the secretive, authoritarian UK is leading. Heckuva job the government is doing there...