YourSay connects government directly with voters, short-circuits traditional media

The “privacy” policy specifically allocates to the Chief Minister’s ALP staff the right to access your personal information even after a Singapore company, Vision Critical, has had its staff “remove any identifying markers from that information”. The privacy policy says that “Following the process of de-identification the information will no longer be personal information for the purposes of the Information Privacy Act” but then specifies that “designated CMTEDD staff” (doesn’t say who, or how junior, whether permanent staff, PR staff, political staff, election researchers) will however continue to have access to personal information stored by Vision Critical if it is required for the purposes of administering the YourSay Community Panel.” (Doesn’t put limits on what ALP political activities and research this “administering” might entail.

Also worryingly, the “CMTEDD will *generally* not disclose personal information to an overseas entity without your consent.” Obviously that leaves it wide open to the Chief Minister’s Office to do just that. And “All personal information stored on servers in Singapore operated by Vision Critical will remain under CMTEDD’s effective control”. What does “effective” control mean? Again, wide open to CMTEDD handing over “control” to another party – as part of partisan electioneering research?

In other words, this project has anyone who signs up ripe for the plucking. This “Vision Critical” outfit is a purely commercial “customer research” not “stakeholder” or “community” research expert.

How will we all feel when it turns out that Andrew Barr has been sharing our information with, say, Geocon?

I think many are being overly cynical. My experience both personally and as a member of an interest group has been entirely positive.
For example, I responded when a major piece of legislation was being reviewed and now there is a section in the relevant act which addresses the issues I raised.
I am part of an organisation that submitted advice on how a particular government policy might be implemented well or less well depending on certain details. We were invited to a meeting with officers from the relevant directorate and it was clear they were keen to benefit from our experience and advice. They got back to us recently to further check on a few details.

Do the Liberals read this? If so:

For God’s sake, make yourselves electable so we can get rid of this clown!

I see some benefits in what the government is trying to do, which is get a broad set of views on issues rather than what they are getting from the usual media and the Community Councils. The traditional media provides the slant of their owners and advertisers. The community councils are a different breed again, funded by government to do work in their local area. However, they are often dominated by people long aligned with influential politicians and barely tolerant of the views of anyone who may see things slightly differently. I have signed up for this experiment and will provide my views into the mix. I hope they are taken into account.

“The government says they want as many Canberrans as possible to join the YourSay Community Panel “to ensure our community’s diversity is reflected in the feedback we hear.”

Experience would suggest that this government will simply ignore views which it finds inconvenient – certainly on major issues – with, maybe, a bit of movement on marginal issues.

This will basically be about a semblance of consultation and an opportunity to get early warning of potentially potent opposition to proposed policies, initiatives etc. so that counter arguments can be developed and refined.