Information held by the Government is a national resource

Information held by the Government is a national resource and should be managed in the public interest. Access to government information increases public participation, and leads to increased scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of government activity.

It would be great to hear an Australian government make a statement like the above, acknowledging that much of the information collected by the government should be readily accessible.

Well in fact they have.

The quote above is from Senator the Hon Robert Faulkner in the FOI Reform - Companion Guide (available in PDF format only from this page).

The next step is to make information available in an appropriate format for easy reuse online, allowing it to recombined and used in innovative ways that add value and lead to new insights.

That's what the US government is planning to do.