NZ Council for Civil Liberties

Open Government Partnership – CSO letter to Minister and response

Last year, civil society organisations, including the Council, wrote to the then Minister for Public Service (Nicola Willis), about development of New Zealand’s fifth National Action Plan as a member of the Open Government Partnership. It is fair to say that the Minister’s response was not encouraging. We later learned that Public Service Commission officials were trying to persuade their Minister that – contrary to the promises of all political parties ahead of the 2023 election – the government should withdraw from the OGP. Ministers rejected these attempts.

Following the ministerial reshuffle at the start of 2025, we and other organisations wrote to the new Minister (Judith Collins KC). We set out some ideas for commitments that could be included in the fifth National Action Plan. Our letter to the Minister is set out below, and you can read the Minister’s reply here.

We were pleased by the Minister’s statement that, “Our commitment to open government is a core principle for the Public Service and an important contributor to our continuing international reputation as a leading democracy.”

The Public Service Commission has shut down the previous website for OGP activities (an archived version of it is available via the National Library). If you want to keep track of Government information about the OGP and work to develop the next Action Plan, this is now on the Commission’s website.

Hon. Judith Collins KC
Minister for the Public Service
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160

By email: J.Collins@ministers.govt.nz

1 April 2025

Dear Minister Collins,

Open Government Partnership

Congratulations on once again being the Minister responsible for New Zealand’s membership of the Open Government Partnership, the international initiative to improve public services and governance through greater responsiveness, accessibility and accountability.

New Zealand is due to develop and submit its fifth National Action Plan by the end of this year. We would like to meet with you to discuss this.

We know that through your other ministerial responsibilities you will be acutely aware of the challenges to the rule of law and democracy around the world. We have heard from your speeches that you have been considering how to strengthen public governance and improve public services for people in New Zealand.

As a leading democracy, New Zealand has much to gain from its association with other democracies. Our OGP membership offers us opportunities to make government more effective as well as more efficient.

Our first two National Action Plans (2014-16, 2016-18) contained commitments to:

  • Ensure people could easily complete digital transactions with government
  • Improve the publication of open data by government and track progress
  • Improve official information practices of government agencies
  • Improve access to secondary legislation via legislation.govt.nz
  • Improve policy practices by increasing knowledge of tools and techniques used by policy makers to create more open and user-led policy

We believe that even in the current constrained fiscal environment there are opportunities to make a difference with low-cost and existing programmes. For example:

  • MBIE’s work on topics such as public procurement and beneficial ownership is unfinished from the last Action Plan, and would benefit from greater public input to ensure the deliverables benefit businesses and the public.
  • Including the Parliamentary Counsel Office’s current work of developing its decentralised publication model for publishing secondary legislation would build on the earlier stages of this work in two Action Plans which received the OGP’s “star” rating and was widely promoted by them.1A single platform for legislation provides easy-access legislation, Open Government Partnership, 21 September 2021. https://www.ogpstories.org/a-single-platform-for-legislation-provides-easy-access-legal-information/
  • Safeguarding public money by progressing work on counter-fraud activities in the public sector, including development of a framework for data-collection and reporting.
  • Government use of AI and algorithms could be strengthened by public and stakeholder involvement in the work on the Algorithm Charter, the Data Ethics Advisory Group and guidance on the use of AI to support public understanding and confidence in the use of these tools by agencies.
  • More progress can be made to improve agencies’ publication of open data to enable legal re-use by the private and non-profit sectors for economic and social benefit.
  • More work can be done to build on improvements to OIA practices, especially in the areas the Key government made progress on, such as proactive publication. The Ministry of Justice’s work on the Directory of Official Information could be incorporated into this, so that we help ensure it benefits the public and departments.
  • The passage of the Parliament Bill and this term’s Standing Orders Review will create opportunities for Parliament to engage better with the public, through an improved website, and a robust process for public input to Parliament’s own budgeting.

Our OGP membership also provides opportunities to work closely with those similar to New Zealand, for example, Norway, Sweden, and Australia, all of whom are undertaking active integrity and ethics-related work. OGP Global Summits, such as the one in Spain this October, have proven useful for ministers and officials.

We would very much like to meet with you to hear your thoughts on the possibilities for work on open government to make the most of the opportunities available.

Yours sincerely,

Jacqui Dillon
Executive Director
Amnesty International NZ		Sacha Green
National Advisor
Citizens Advice Bureau
Cath Wallace
Open Government lead
Environment and Conservation Organisations of NZ		Katherine Peet
Convenor
Network Waitangi Ōtautahi Organising Group
Thomas Beagle
Chairperson
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties		Julie Haggie,
Chief Executive Officer
Transparency International NZ
Simon Wright
Chair
Trust Democracy