Response 412427657

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Questions about you

What is your name?

Name
Mark Zirnsak

Who are you making this submission for?

Please select one item
Myself
Another person
Organisation (including Commonwealth, state, territory or local government agency)

What is the name of your organisation?

Organisation
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania

What sector is your organisation a part of?

Please select one item
Private sector – small business
Private sector – medium to large business
Representative body
Legal sector
Not-for-Profit sector
Government (including state and territory)
Academia

In what state do you live/where is your organisation based?

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ACT
NSW
VIC
TAS
SA
WA
NT
QLD
External territories
Outside Australia

Where do you live/where is your organisation based?

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Major metropolitan area
Regional
Remote

What is your gender (if you are submitting on your own, or another person’s, behalf)?

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Male
Female
Non-binary
Other
Prefer not to say

What is your age range (if you are submitting on your own, or another person’s, behalf)?

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<18 years
18 – 24
25 – 34
35 – 44
45 – 54
55 – 64
65+

We may publish an anonymised summary of responses online. Would you find this useful?

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Yes
No

Making your submission public

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(Required)
I agree to my submission being made public under my name and/or organisation
I agree to my submission being made public anonymously
I do not want my submission to be made public

Public participation and engagement

Do you support this working group’s focus on public participation and engagement?

Please select one item
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree
What is your opinion of this theme?
The work is vital to improving trust in government and in the system of representative democracy.

What is one problem relating to public participation and engagement that is arising, and what is the cause?

The public service is not using codesign with impacted people when it would make sense to do so, failing to follow the government's own policy on the issue.

What is a specific action to enhance public participation that would advance one or more of the open government principles (transparency, inclusive participation, accountability, innovation and ambition) over the next 2 years?

Introduce legislation that would require the public service to use codesign as the default in policy and service design, unless they can provide a valid reason not to do so. A decision not to use codesign should be appealable to the Australian Public Service Commissioner.

How could the impact of improved public participation be measured?

By the proportion of policies and service systems developed through codesign.

Government and corporate sector integrity

Do you support this group’s focus on government and corporate sector integrity?

Please select one item
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree
What is your opinion of this theme?
Integrity is vital to ensure fairness in our society and the world.

What is one problem relating to integrity in government and the corporate sector that is arising, and what is the cause?

Corporations can be set up with concealed owners and controllers to conduct illegal and unethical activities. The government systems for registering a business are not robust in verifying information about the business and the ultimate beneficial owners.

What is a specific action to enhance integrity that would advance one or more of the open government principles (transparency, inclusive participation, accountability, innovation and ambition) over the next 2 years?

Implement a robust public beneficial ownership register and improve verification of information provided when establishing a business.

How could the impact of improved integrity be measured?

Through a reduction in criminal activity related to corruption and legal structures that conceal the criminals behind the legal entity.

What approaches to integrity could we learn from other countries or the states and territories?

A large number of countries that have implemented public beneficial ownership registers.

Strengthening democratic processes

Do you support this working group’s focus on strengthening democratic processes?

Please select one item
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree
What is your opinion of this theme?
Trust in the democratic system can only be enhanced when all people get a meaningful say and when there are limits on the ability of the wealthy to skew public policy to their preferences through the use of their wealth. Disinformation erodes trust in the democratic system.

What is one problem relating to strengthening democracy that is arising, and what is the cause?

The ability of the wealthy to be able to make unlimited political donations to skew public policy to their preferences.

What is a specific action to strengthen democracy that would advance one or more of the open government principles (transparency, inclusive participation, accountability, innovation and ambition) over the next 2 years?

Place limits on political donations from individuals and legal entities and introduce a system of the government providing all voters the opportunity to provide a small government funded donation to the political party or candidate of their choice.

Also, the ATO should collect information on all political donations so that the number and distribution by income can be disclosed.

How could the impact of strengthened democracy be measured?

By the number of people that use a system of government funded small political donations and their income distribution.

What approaches to strengthening democracy could we learn from other countries or the states and territories?

Seattle has had a system of city funded political donations that can be made by all residents since their 2017 election. Oakland in California has also adopted the system.

Belgium and Spain have placed strong restrictions on private money in the political system.