CraigT

Public information should be publicly available in a format and under licensing that supports reuse, reinterpretation and integration with other data.

For examples, look at the Amazon Public data sets (http://aws.amazon.com/publicdatasets/)and the UK government's Mash-up competition (make better use of public data) - www.showusabetterway.co.uk OpenAustralia (www.openaustralia.org) is a local example of the energy and creativity of the public when allowed access to data.

And the licensing capability exists and is in practical use in over 40 countries today via Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/au/). This is not even new to Australian government - it is supported and used in Queensland (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Government_Information_Licensing_Framework). The ABS is launching Creative Commons for all of its data on 18-19 December (a major step forwards!)

Of course the ability to reuse this data involves placing data online in a useful format. There have been efforts in government to create a national standard for data. I recommend continuing these, but with a very strong deadline and tight terms of reference to avoid dithering or weak standards that do not enforce appropriate information release on agencies.