When your data is captured and shared by government, what are the benefits and costs? The Turnbull government touts public and private use of open government data as a wellspring for better public and private service delivery and economic well-being. Digitisation and tracking of government data allows better understanding of causes and solutions to inequities in our changing communities, and consequent adjustment of services and amenities. But use of government data is also encouraged for private profit making business opportunities. Digitised government data may be used well or badly by both government entities and private ventures. Does open government digital data improve equality of access to democracy and its benefits and empower all? Chris Culnane is a Research Fellow in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. He has researched electronic voting. He was the technical lead on the SuVote project to design, develop, and deploy an end-to-end verifiable electronic voting system in the 2014 state election in the State of Victoria, Australia. More recently he was part of the team that discovered weaknesses in the anonymisation of the Australian Government MBS/PBS dataset release. The dataset consisted of a 10% sample of Australian Medicare billing records over a 30 year period. He is also interested in how the original notion of open government has morphed into the more general notion of open data. As a result, an increasing number of open government data releases are not about the Government itself, but are instead about the population. Chris says "...an increasing number of open government data releases are not about the Government itself, but are instead about the population. ...Such releases raise important questions about data ownership; does the data belong to the government, or is it merely the custodian? Should data that is collected compulsorily, or via access to essential government services, ever be released as open data, given the lack of an opt-out or alternative? If such data is released, does that mean a greater dependence on government services increases the likelihood of being a subject in a data release, and therefore incurs a greater privacy risk?"

Tony is a Former Fabians editor, and currently Associate Professor and Program Director for the Master of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University. He has recently authored a book chapter on the role of class in inequality.

NSW Fabians, Sydney, 3 February 2017

The NSW Fabians are proud to host Paul Mason in conversation.

Join us for what should be a fascinating discussion about Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit, the rise of the far right and the economic road ahead.

Paul Mason is a writer and broadcaster on economics and social justice. He is a regular columnist for The Guardian and notable commentator on the future of the Left. His most recent book is 'PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future'.

Sydney, 11 October 2016

Sydney, 9 September 2016

NSW Fabians, Sydney, 15 April 2016

NSW Fabians, Sydney, 14 February 2016

Fabians National Chair Tim Sonnreich interviews author, speech writer and former political adviser Joel Deane over a coffee at a café in Fitzroy.

In a fast-paced discussion we hear Joel's views on;

*how to achieve lasting progressive policy reform,

*the tension between political advisers and departmental officials in setting the policy agenda,

*the joys and frustrations of political advising as a career, and,

*the role of factions in Labor Governments.

This chat was recorded on November 6, 2015.

Length: 28mins 21secs