Any electronic democracy initiative introduced by the State of Victoria, including the Parliament, should be assessed against the four principles of:
Majority rule through popular elections and the primacy of Parliament
Equality of participation in civic life for all citizens
Human rights of citizens to participate freely in public life
Minority rights of groups within the community
The responsible Minister, through data collection and aggregation by the Department for Victorian Communities, in partnership with its key stakeholders in the State and Local Government arenas, should produce a regular statement of Victorians' attitudes to our democratic system and institutions, in a manner which builds upon similar national research and supports the effective evaluation of democratic initiatives at each level of government.
This statement should include both descriptive and diagnostic information, and be updated at least once per Parliamentary term, to form the basis for an effective, ongoing agenda of reform and modernisation of the Victorian democratic system.
The introduction of electronic democracy initiatives should be undertaken with consideration in mind of fluctuations of public interest in politics. Where feasible, electronic democracy initiatives or pilot projects of the Parliament and Government of Victoria should be undertaken over a complete Parliamentary term, or terms, where appropriate.
The adoption of any electronic democracy initiative by the Parliament or State Government of Victoria should not exclude conventional forms of participation. No existing method of political participation in the State of Victoria should be superseded by a method that relies solely on information and communications technologies.
The State Government of Victoria, and the Parliament, should recognise that information and communications technologies provide an empowering means of social and political participation for some segments of the community. Where appropriate, information and communications technologies should be employed to facilitate public participation in addition to conventional means.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer should ensure that the transition from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 to 2.0 in the State of Victoria is undertaken in consultation across government and with relevant community stakeholders.
An appropriate public sector education process should begin prior to the formal adoption of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, in order to prepare for a smooth transition between compliance standards.
Where appropriate, reporting against both sets of guidelines should be required for Victorian Departments and Agencies as an interim measure, to improve understanding of changes in the compliance regime.
Accessibility standards for the State Government of Victoria should be revised to move minimum requirements to level AA compliance under the existing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and the equivalent level under the forthcoming 2.0 guidelines. Compliance to the AA standard should be phased in from June 2005 to encourage continual improvement practices in website design.
In recognition of the diversity of capacity and audience-specific needs, Departments and Agencies should be permitted to seek exemptions for certain websites (higher or lower than level AA) based on a clear business case justification.
Failure to comply with the whole-of-government standards for website accessibility should be identified and addressed by the Office of the Chief Information Officer as a priority. Implementation slippage should not justify the relaxation of existing minimum standards in Victoria.
Under the Website Management Framework, the Office of the Chief Information Officer should establish a formal, regular reporting mechanism for compliance to the five Whole of Government Website Standards, with a minimum of one-third of all Government websites surveyed on an annual basis to determine their compliance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and activities in place to advance to the next level of compliance.
This report should be tabled in Parliament on an annual basis by the Minister, including information showing improvements by key agencies over time and highlighting agencies that have failed to progress towards Government targets.
This report should be developed in partnership with relevant community stakeholders.
All Victorian websites should move towards a consistent user-experience design standard, developed by the Office of the Chief Information Officer as part of the overarching web strategy of the Victorian Government.
Variations to this requirement should be permitted for websites that have a specific user need.
All Victorian documents published by the Victorian Public Sector as Portable Document Format (PDF) files should also be provided in an alternative accessible format (such as Hypertext Markup Language, Rich Text Format or plain text).
This recommendation should not be used to limit the level of information published online.
The Digital Archive project under development by the Public Records Office Victoria should investigate and adopt, where possible, software to extract information from Portable Document Format (PDF) files stored under the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy standard for use by users who do not prefer this format.
The minimum web standards for online publication of government information should be revised to systematically phase in accessibility of online information via devices with unusual screen sizes.
The minimum web standards for online publication of government information should be revised to ensure that a consistent policy exists to support and encourage the use of systems to syndicate online content by the whole Victorian Public Sector.
All State Government syndicated content feeds should be registered with Victoria Online and a central list maintained on this website to increase the discoverability of these feeds by Internet search engines.
Information Victoria should investigate the possibility of developing a print-on-demand service for Government publications that are not provided in print.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer, in conjunction with relevant Local Government association(s), should investigate ways by which Local Government in Victoria can take advantage of the content management system tender currently being let by the State, to access advanced website management and web accessibility standards through aggregated tendering.
Based on this assessment, the Office of the Chief Information Officer should report to the Minister for Local Government on the appropriateness of targeted subsidisation for content management system acquisition, implementation and management in the Local Government sector.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer, in conjunction with the relevant Local Government association(s) and Local Government Division of the Department for Victorian Communities, should determine whether existing website management best practice guides developed under the Networking the Nation project require revision and increased distribution throughout the Local Government sector.
The Minister for Local Government should introduce a regulation requiring that Local Governments include within their annual reports a statement of the Web Content Accessibility Guideline compliance of websites maintained by the Council once per the term of Council.
The Victorian Government, through Multimedia Victoria, should introduce an annual accessibility awards program for Victorian companies and community organisations, in order to encourage greater compliance with web accessibility standards and promote the awareness of online accessibility issues outside of government.
These awards should be developed in conjunction with relevant stakeholders as partners, such as Vision Australia.
These awards should focus on the recognition of best practice and improvement, with the capture of quality case example information for distribution to other organisations.
Multimedia Victoria should enter discussions with the relevant Local Government peak bodies about participation by Local Government in these awards.
Multimedia Victoria should provide a comprehensive report on the overall success of these awards in improving commercial and community based organisations' compliance with accessibility standards within five years of their initiation, in order to gauge the value of this approach.
Given the importance of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to democratic accountability, Recommendations 24 to 32 should be considered in conjunction with the outcome of the current review of the Act by the Ombudsman and in light of possible recommendations contained in the report on an investigation concerning allegations that departments are unduly delaying responses to Freedom of Information requests.
Where appropriate, Recommendations 24 to 32 should be incorporated into a reform package by the Attorney-General.
Section 2 of the Freedom of Information Act should be amended to require Victorian departments and agencies to:
Require all agencies (as defined in the Freedom of Information Act) to publish the information listed in section 7 on the World Wide Web.
Amend the existing requirement for this information to be published in their annual report, to state that a summary of this information should be provided in the annual report, with clear references to means by which the public can gain access to the complete list.
Participation in FOI Online should be extended, with the objective of incorporating those agencies that collectively receive more than seventy-five percent of total applications under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, based on statistics from the last reporting year.
This recommendation should not be interpreted as precluding the participation by agencies in smaller annual Freedom of Information requests based on their own business case assessments.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 should be amended to require each Government department and agency to introduce and maintain a "publication scheme" as per the United Kingdom's Freedom of Information Act 2000, with the following modifications:
The relevant Minister should approve the publication scheme.
The publication scheme should be revised and modified on an annual basis, with variations only permitted after a publication has been listed for one calendar year.
This publication scheme should be published on the department and agency websites, and referenced in their annual reports, and be reported to the Department of Justice as part of the Department's annual Freedom of Information reporting requirements.
The Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee should undertake a review of the effectiveness of the proposed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 after five years of the operations of publication schemes. This review should consider:
The effectiveness of the introduction of this approach
Means to support public access to information under the provision
The need for a third-party regulator of the content of these schemes.
The Public Records Office Victoria should issue the whole-of-government email storage and retention policy and guidance document proposed in 2002 as a matter of priority. This document should:
Clearly state the relationship between email and Freedom of Information and the importance of a systematic retention strategy for these documents.
Note the relationship between the policy and Victoria Electronic Records Strategy compliance (interim).
Provide the user with a clear "best-practice" template policy for customisation at the departmental or agency level.
Provide line managers and staff with clear checklists for action.
No Victorian Government email server should automatically purge email. An officer responsible for the account prior to deletion should review all sorted email on Government servers.
As part of the implementation of Recommendation 29, the Public Records Office Victoria should consider developing an interim guidance document for Victorian Government departments and agencies on the storage and archiving of Instant Messaging log files.
The growth in use of Instant Messaging should be monitored by the Office of the Chief Information Officer to determine whether a more comprehensive policy approach is required.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 should be amended to require that documents released under Freedom of Information application be included in the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy Digital Archive where:
The inclusion of these documents is not in violation of the Information Privacy Act 2000, and
The documents exist in electronic format.
The implementation of this requirement under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 will need to be staggered, by regulation, as departments and agencies reach Victorian Electronic Records Strategy compliance.
The current application of electronic redacting software in the Department for Victorian Communities should be reviewed by the Department of Justice, in co-operation with Public Records Office Victoria, the Ombudsman Victoria and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Should a positive benefit to the administration of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 be identified through the use of this technology, the Office of the Chief Information Officer should be tasked with co-ordinating State-wide implementation.
The outcomes of this assessment should be communicated to the Local Government sector.
The work of the State Library of Victoria in identifying and preserving online information of importance to the cultural and political life of Victoria should be recognised and supported. The Library should maintain and develop its current level of work in this area to support the retention of valuable online information.
The Libraries Act 1988 should be amended to define "library materials" as "information", moving technology specific references in the existing definition to a subset of library materials and incorporating two additional definitions in the Act as per the Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000:
"Information" means information in the form of data, text, images or sound.
"Information system" means a system for generating, sending, receiving, storing or otherwise processing electronic communications.
The State of Victoria has a clear interest in maintaining a diverse media environment for all Victorians, particularly for the creation and distribution of news and current affairs broadcasting. The Government of Victoria, through the Premier, should monitor any proposed national legislative changes to media ownership laws and the funding of national public broadcasters, and act where appropriate to ensure that minimum local content creation rules are adhered to by licence holders and funding is maintained for public broadcasting of news and current affairs.
The Government of Victoria should continue to support the MC2 initiative. However:
Future funding agreements with VICNET to continue this service should focus on training through the variety of online communities services available, and not restrict training to a specific focus on the MC2 content management and hosting portal.
Any future decision to discontinue the My Connected Communities content hosting service should be undertaken in conjunction with a clear migration plan for these resources to one or more alternative hosting environments.
The current approach to targeted funding for community organisation information and communication technology capacity building projects should be continued, with specific focus on communities under-represented in the information economy and who are socially excluded.
The Minister for the Arts should develop an initiative to network existing public, private and community content developers, with the objectives of ensuring Victorian content developed can be captured electronically - where appropriate - that this content sees the widest possible distribution and content of significant value to the social and political life of Victoria is archived appropriately.
Following due consideration, the Minister for the Arts should advise the Parliament whether the Arts Victoria Act 1972 should be amended to include specific reference to the development of an information commons under the objectives of the Act.
Multimedia Victoria should commission a revised and comprehensive version of the research conducted by Centre for Community Networking Research and Whitehorse Strategic Group on a biennial basis. This research should be used to track changes in usage patterns to public access terminals and gauge the success of these programs in reaching targeted community segments. Data gathered from this longitudinal research should be used to integrate public access terminals with services and programs across Government, targeted towards groups with low usage rates.
The new research should include a greater focus on data collection to track technology obsolescence for corrective action (targeted funding, program rationalisation, resource sharing) by providers.
The I@ service should be extended to include a State-wide local call number that provides access to the venue database via an interactive service.
Multimedia Victoria should investigate how this service could also serve to refer users to relevant training opportunities.
This telephone service should provide multilingual options.
The I@ service should be extended to allow for the syndication of the database query form through other websites (such as Local Government).
New and renewed funding agreements between the State Government and public Internet access providers should require that I@ be updated by the provider as a term of the funding agreement.
The I@ database should be extended to capture technology age and renewal by providers.
The Minister for Local Government should amend the relevant regulations to permit and require the online publication of Candidate Statements, authorised how-to-vote cards, and a candidate photograph by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
The Local Government Act 1989 should be amended to incorporate the provision of Candidate Statements, authorised how-to-vote cards, and a candidate photograph in all Local Government elections, regardless of voting method (postal, attendance) employed.
The Electoral Act 2002 should be amended to incorporate the provision of Candidate Statements, authorised how-to-vote cards, and a candidate photograph in all Parliamentary elections.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should develop a centralised election portal for candidates' statements for future elections.
The provision of this information through the portal should allow for the syndication of this content.
The Victorian Government should provide targeted funding to relevant community bodies to provide access to voter information in a wide range of accessible formats and major non-English linguistic communities for the next State election.
This funding should be provided through the Victorian Electoral Commission, which should be tasked with the process of contract management, oversight and reporting to the Parliament.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should develop and provide a policy manual for the collection and distribution of this information, including information about Victorian electoral law and issues of defamation, and should require equal access to all candidates.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should provide advice to the Parliament and Government prior to the next State election as to the appropriateness of facilitating the delivery of scanned voter registration and postal vote applications via email or similar method.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should provide advice to the Parliament and Government prior to the next State election as to the appropriateness of facilitating the delivery of signed voter registration and postal vote applications using pen-interface technologies.
The Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the existing enrolment form maintained on the Victorian Electoral Commission website should be supplemented with:
An additional version in an accessible format.
An online form allowing users to enter their enrolment details online, but still requiring a printed version to be posted to the Victorian Electoral Commission for verification of the signature.
Parliamentary elections should not be conducted remotely via information and communications technologies in the near future.
This decision should be reviewed by Victorian Electoral Commission following each State election, unless requested to do so earlier by the Minister.
Within 12 months of a positive review by the Victorian Electoral Commission, the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee table a report in Parliament concerning the desirability of introducing Internet-based voting, either generally or for a limited purpose.
The Victorian Electoral Commission, in consultation with relevant stakeholder groups, should develop and implement a system of electronic voting machines for local and general elections in Victoria. These machines should:
Permit the casting of a private, unassisted vote for the blind, those Victorians with limited vision, and Victorians with low levels of English literacy
Provide the same voting instructions as appear on the paper ballot in a range of languages other than English
Produce a voter-verifiable paper trail to be retained by electoral officials
Allow for the electronic tabulation of votes cast
Be restricted to a closed local area network under the complete physical control of electoral officials.
The implementation of this electronic voting system should be undertaken with consideration of:
The use of open-source software to provide maximum public oversight of the source code used in these machines
The capacity to collaborate between jurisdictions over the development of hardware and software
The capacity of the Victorian Electoral Commission to pilot the system on a limited basis, and expand provision of these machines based on community need and demand.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should maintain an appraisal of developments in the area of electronic and online voting, and be provided with the resources to send staff to participate or observe the conduct of electronic and online elections internationally and around Australia.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should be required to provide independent technical certification of its current electronic vote-counting software.
Certification should be required following each modification of the software used.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should be required to ensure that future acquisition or development of electronic vote-counting software be open-source software. This requirement should also specify that:
This source code be released by the Electoral Commission via its website.
A process for the collection, review and incorporation (where appropriate) of comments and bug reports from the public be developed.
The Victorian Electoral Commission as a matter of priority should undertake a risk assessment of the practice of using leased computers for electronic vote counting. This risk assessment should include:
A third-party technical audit.
A review of the administrative practices surrounding the leasing, cleaning, preparation and use of these machines in the counting of votes.
This risk assessment should be tabled before the Parliament at the soonest possible date.
The Victorian Electoral Commission should prepare a business case for the Victorian Government on the use of automatic ballot-scanning technology on a pilot basis. This review should consider:
Models for the implementation of these systems (acquisition, lease, etc.)
Means by which acquisition costs can be shared with other jurisdictions
Costs and benefits of implementation
Effectiveness of the technology and minimum thresholds by which recounts should be required by law (margin-of-error assessments).
The Victorian Public Sector should consider adopting approaches to licensing data held that have traditionally been used for commercial purposes on a cost-recovery basis, whereby the release of this data is necessary to provide for contestable policy consultation and upon request. Where possible, alternative licensing schemes, such as a localised version of the Creative Commons licensing scheme, should be applied to data release to allow for public interest use, and should retain the commercial return.
All Parliamentary and Government consultation and participation processes should include, where feasible and appropriate to the target audience, the use of ICTs.
ICT-enabled consultation and participation processes should be developed in conjunction with key stakeholder groups and academic institutions in order to develop relevant frameworks for participation and evaluation.
These processes should be undertaken to provide an evaluation of effectiveness, both qualitative and quantitative.
With regards to online consultation:
Any consultation undertaken without an online component should include in the methodology of the final report of the consultation a statement outlining the reasons against undertaking an element of the consultation online.
The inclusion of online participation should not be limited to restrict participation in offline forms.
Where possible, online consultation should allow citizen-to-citizen communication, moderated only to prevent incidence of defamation or legal risk to the State or Parliament of Victoria.
Online consultations should be undertaken using the best available technology and techniques available, and the design of these systems should be undertaken in conjunction with key stakeholder groups. Where appropriate, these consultation and participation processes should be based within community organisations.
The State Government of Victoria should identify and develop a number of policy areas where demonstration online-consultation projects can be conducted.
The moderation of online consultation and participation processes needs a clear policy statement for staff that provides direction as to:
The purpose of moderation
The degree of moderation appropriate, depending on circumstances
Policies or procedures for resolving disputes
The necessity for the policy statement to be available to participants.
Online consultations should provide detailed reports on outcomes, including problems, to encourage learning across Government and the civil society.
Where possible and feasible, online consultation systems should be developed in open source, with the source code widely available to other Government agencies and civil society groups.
An electronic democracy co-ordinating body should be established in the Department for Victorian Communities.
The Department for Victorian Communities, through the electronic democracy co-ordinating unit should:
Forge and maintain ongoing networks of practitioners and scholars, from across all levels of Government.
Develop a set of evolving benchmarks and performance measures for online consultation, to assist in establishing and advancing best practice.
Include seconded membership from across the public sector.
Be advised by industry and academic experts.
Have active participation from key Local Government organisations, either directly or through relevant peak bodies.
The Department for Victorian Communities should establish a best-practice reference guide for public consultations in Victoria, with supporting documentation, references and check lists, to provide an ongoing resource for the successful and effective conduct of consultation processes in the State.
This reference should be regularly reviewed and updated, and should form the basis of ongoing improvement in best practice throughout the State.
This reference should be supported by a professional network of public servants engaged in the conduct of consultations, as reference points for other agencies and officers.
The use of online consultation by Government departments and agencies should consider the value of these experiences for technology and skills transfer to stakeholder groups in the community, in order to develop and expand the use of online consultation within their governance practices.
Where practical and feasible, consultation processes should encourage stakeholder groups to poll or solicit member responses using the technology appropriate to solicit the widest possible participation.
A centralised portal and subscription service for Government and Parliamentary publications, consultations and legislative work should be established, allowing free public access to Government policy processes in a timely manner, in order to encourage public participation.
Local Governments should be allowed to contribute relevant material into the subscription service.
www.communitybuilding.vic.gov.au should adopt a moderated citizen-to-citizen discussion forum to develop and deepen linkages between community groups within Victoria.
www.communitybuilding.vic.gov.au should further investigate methods by which the relationship between this initiative and similar initiatives around Australia (such as communitybuilders.nsw) can be strengthened to:
Syndicate relevant content between these services
Redirect Victorian users to relevant Victorian resources (where they exist).
A redevelopment of the website of the Parliament of Victoria should be undertaken with consideration of the means to ensure:
The capacity of publishers in the Parliament to provide content that can be syndicated
The use of appropriate authoring and content presentation tools to allow the Parliamentary website to be accessible on devices with unusual screen sizes
The use of a consistent user-experience model for website design
The capacity of the Parliament, as a distributed publishing environment, to sustain Web Content Accessibility Guidelines level AAA compliance.
The Department of Parliamentary Services should provide to the Presiding Officers, for tabling in the Parliament, an annual certification of compliance by the Parliamentary website with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
This document should note, where appropriate, areas of, and for, improvement and actions to be taken to improve and sustain compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
The Parliament of Victoria should systematically introduce webcasting of both Chambers of Parliament. The webcasting of public meetings of Parliamentary Committees should be available at the discretion of each committee's chairperson. This system should allow:
Viewers and listeners to select a level of transmission quality suitable to their Internet service
Archiving of two Parliamentary terms of webcasts for online retrieval
Indexing of the webcast through the Hansard database.
Archived streaming video older than two Parliamentary terms should be archived with the Public Records Office Victoria, in consultation with relevant preservation specialists.
The Parliament of Victoria, through the Presiding Officers, should enter discussions with relevant broadcasters to determine the possibility of broadcasting Parliament through their existing networks.
The Parliamentary webcasting service should be developed in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, in order to determine whether this type of online publication service should be developed as an enterprise-wide service to facilitate low-cost access by other Government departments and agencies, Local Government and community organisations.
The Parliament, through the Presiding Officers, should undertake a pilot of electronic chamber voting systems to assess the advantages of the introduction of these systems in the reduction of time taken to undertake legislative business.
A Parliamentary information subscription service should be provided as part of the proposed centralised consultation gateway and subscription service for the whole of the Victorian Government.
The Parliament of Victoria should introduce an online petitions facility on a trial basis, subject to ongoing evaluation as to the benefits offered to Victorians. The Victorian online petition system should include a moderated discussion facility, similar to that provided by the Scottish Parliament.
This system should be developed in open source, if possible, with access to the code available (at minimum) to the Local Government sector in Victoria.
The Parliamentary template for paper petitions should be amended to allow for optional collection of email addresses or other electronic means of communication, in order to allow the petitioner to receive information about the status and tabling of their petition from the Parliament.
The Parliament should pilot a postal feedback system.
The Parliamentary commitment to the introduction of ICT-enabled consultation and participation processes must be matched with a tangible investment in staff, training, tools and promotional resources.
Committees of the Parliament should be authorised to take evidence by electronic means and recognise recordings of these meetings as evidence when taken by a constituted Committee (with quorum). This includes:
The submission of evidence via email and instant messaging
The collection of evidence via telephone or like service
Use of videoconferencing facilities.
This authorisation should not extend where:
The respective Committee has resolved not to accept evidence provided electronically as a general determination of the Committee
The Committee feels it will not be able to verify the identity of a witness using electronic communications technology
There is the possibility that "in-camera" confidential evidence will be presented.
The Parliamentary Committees Act 2003 should be amended to permit the constitution of Committee meetings with Members participating by audio or video link where:
The quality of this link is such that Members of the Committee attending physically can verify the identity of the absent Member.
The participation of one Member remotely does not prevent the participation of another via a similar means (multiple participation by Members remotely).
The Committee has resolved unanimously to permit the use of these technologies for Committee business.
The Parliament should provide Members with a specific funding allocation for the establishment of a personal website. This funding should be provided with guidance from the Parliamentary webmaster regarding:
Issues of accessibility
Means to select an appropriate provider (including means to manage online content efficiently and with minimal technical expertise)
Best practices regarding the syndication of content through the Member's site (including Parliamentary information and information from third parties).
The Information Technology Unit of the Parliament of Victoria should develop and publicise a clear application and approval process for non-Standard Operating Environment applications.
The Information Technology Unit of the Parliament of Victoria should:
Implement and maintain any SPAM filtering system with the utmost care to limit, to the greatest possible extent, "false positive" outcomes.
Advise and inform Members about the advantages and limitations of applying these systems.
Provide a clear means for Members to "opt out" of the use of these systems.
The Information Technology Unit of the Parliament of Victoria should provide Members, upon request, with an additional email address.
References to Members' of Parliament email addresses should be replaced with online forms, if requested by the individual Member.
These forms should provide for:
Means to conceal the Member's email address from web crawlers
The capacity to provide a receipt, via email, to the author of the message
The capacity (at the discretion of each Member of Parliament) to capture additional information from the author, such as telephone contact details, preferred means of communication, address, etc.
The bandwidth available to all Members' Electorate Office should be improved to a minimum level required to provide for access to streaming video (download) and application software grade videoconferencing services (upload and download).