Timely access to information is essential in building trust between the community and government. Over the past year during the Covid-19 pandemic we have seen this truth in action around the world as the governments that have been proactive in sharing information with the people they serve have been the most successful in responding to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.
Trust is hard earned and easily lost, so it is imperative that as public servants we continue to manage our information assets well and share information as openly as possible. Every officer should be aware of and consider their responsibilities in creating information (including data and other records of information) and ensuring that information is appropriately accessible into the future.
To learn and discover more about how we can adapt to the challenge of managing a growing range and volume of information, and build our information management capabilities, we encourage you attend events during Information Awareness Month in May – see https://informationawarenessmonth.org/iam-2021-events/.
Further help and advice on information management is available through the State Records Office WA (at https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/state-records-office-of-western-australia ).
Information about the right to access documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1992 is available from the Office of the Information Commissioner (at https://www.oic.wa.gov.au/en-au/).
