Powerful and well-resourced business groups, unions and not-for-profits are influencing policy in Australia to serve their interests, sometimes at the expense of the public interest. Stronger checks and balances on policy influence are needed, to make Australian politics cleaner and fairer.

This document, the second such plan devised for the nation, outlines the Australian government's aspirations for enhancing access to information, civic participation and public accountability in the digital age.

The Open Government Action Plan aims to transform the relationship between government and all the people it serves. The state sector reforms that have been proposed are aimed at making exciting and meaningful change to the way government works for citizens and engages with citizens.

This briefing paper explains the Open Budget Index (OBI) in more detail and discusses the state of budget transparency, participation and oversight in Australia, regionally and globally.

This Democracy 100 brief reports that Australians should rightly be proud of their hard won democratic traditions and freedoms and the achievement of stable government which has delivered social and economic wellbeing for its citizens. However, the findings herein should give all democrats pause for thought.