Mr David Mason
Secretary
E-commerce Reference
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 1042

Dear Mr Mason,

AusInfo wishes to make a submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry into 'Access to Electronic Commerce and New Service and Information Technologies for Older Australians and People with a Disability' detailed at: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/current_inquiries/ecom/ecom.html.

It offers the following, based on points raised in the Issues Paper and has no concerns with the submission being posted on the Internet by the Commission.

This submission covers AusInfo's core roles, an explanation of current activities and likely future directions for the organisation.

AusInfo was formed as a result of the successful sale of the production and service facilities of the former Australian Government Publishing Service in early 1998. Subsequently, it transferred to the newly created Department of Finance and Administration. This arrangement was re-confirmed in late 1998 when new Administrative Arrangement Orders were issued following the outcome of the General Election of that year.

AusInfo's core role can be described as providing access by the public, community groups, industry and government to Commonwealth Government public information.

Whilst AusInfo takes responsibility for this core function, it does so in alignment with whole-of-government instructions, directives, and best practice guidelines. The functions, roles and services AusInfo undertakes to achieve access to public information are described in the attached paper under a range of headings. These outline current activities and potential future directions.

If you wish to contact AusInfo to discuss any matter mentioned in this submission please contact Eric Webb by email on eric.webb@dofa.gov.au, telephone (02) 6275 3661 or by fax (02) 6275 3679.

Yours sincerely

(signed)

Michelle Kinnane

Assistant Secretary

11 November 1999

cc: Dr Peter Boxall, Dr Diana Wright

TO THE

HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION INQUIRY —

ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND NEW SERVICE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR OLDER AUSTRALIANS AND PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY

AusInfo is a unit of the Australian Department of Finance and Administration. It has an Internet presence at http://www.ausinfo.gov.au.

AusInfo's core role can be described as providing access by the public, community groups, industry and government to Commonwealth Parliament and Government public information.

Whilst AusInfo takes responsibility for this core function, it does so in alignment with a range of whole-of-government instructions, directives, and best practice guidelines, such as:

• The Prime Minister's Investing for Growth industry statement which has the objective of delivering appropriate government services online by the year 2001 (http://www.isr.gov.au/growth/assets/multimedia/package.pdf);
• The report published by the Office for Government Online, Management of Government Information as a National Strategic Resource (http://www.dcita.gov.au/ogo/imsc/imscrept.htm);
• The Style Manual;
• Guidelines endorsed by the Joint Committee on Publications and Government responses to Parliamentary committee reports. Examples include; the Guidelines for Commonwealth information published in electronic formats (http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/guidelines/index.html ); and range of general guidelines as shown at; http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/general/gen_commpublishing.htm
• legislated material such as:
• Archives Act 1983;
• Audit Act 1901;
• Copyright Act 1968;
• Crimes Act 1914;
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992;
• Evidence Act 1995;
• Freedom of Information Act 1982;
• Privacy Act 1988;
• Public Service Act 1922 and Regulations;
• Parliamentary Papers Act 1908; and
• Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987.

These documents are referred to as appropriate below. Under the following headings is a description of the present arrangements with anticipated plans to enhance access to government information.

Before going further, it is useful to have a short discussion on the terminology chosen by AusInfo in relation to what types of information it has responsibility for. Broadly, any government information that is released for public consumption is of interest to AusInfo and its stakeholders. There are other categories of information produced by the government, such as records, non-public material, data and library material that are in the province of other Commonwealth information management lead agencies.

There is a mind set that the term 'publication' only refers to printed books. AusInfo's responsibilities cover the provision of access to government public information regardless of the media used. To minimise these perceptions, AusInfo prefers to use terms that are non-technology specific such as 'documents' or 'government public information', because the focus is on the delivery of that information, unless there are occasions when it is appropriate to articulate the particular information product. Also, for the sake of brevity the generic term 'information' is used when the context is clear.

AusInfo manages a contract with the outsourced supplier CanPrint Communications for the provision of TeleInfo Services (a national call centre service), the network of Government Info Shops in all capital cities and the related ordering and distribution services for delivery of product to customers.

Customers can either enter a Government Info Shop and purchase a document, use the shop's free Internet service to source information, or they can telephone the TeleInfo Services toll-free number (132 447) to make an inquiry with a customer service staff and place an order. The operator can interpret the customers' request, often expressed in general terms, and identify the information they are seeking. The TeleInfo resource is supported by an electronic publication database which is also accessible as an online product called AGIP (Australian Government Index of Publications). The following web sites take you to AGIP http://agip.gov.au/), and the AusInfo purchasing arrangements (http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/general/gen_hottobuy.htm).

To further assist Australian's to access government publications AusInfo and CanPrint are investigating the introduction of an Internet Shopping Trolley. Users can create an order for the purchase of government information whilst browsing the online catalogue. In broad terms, this is likely to be achieved by using World Wide Web technology to create a 'front end' or interface connected to the catalogue database. The benefits are that anyone, regardless of their location would be able to view the Shopping Trolley from a personal computer with Internet access, place an order for the documents, potentially pay online and have the publications delivered to their nominated address.

Another concept coming to fruition is demand printing. Again AusInfo and CanPrint are investigating the feasibility of providing a service whereby anyone can access online government material and choose the demand print option. If this goes ahead a high-quality laser printing facility would be provided at each Government Info Shop. This would be in addition to any download or printout options that are current available to users.

Related to demand printing and mentioned in the Commission's Issues Paper is the cost of information to the user. The following defines how AusInfo manages pricing of information. It should be noted that with the devolution of responsibility and current funding and accountability arrangements, the decision to provide a document at a price or free is often at the discretion of line managers in departments and agencies.

With demand printing, the user bears the cost based on a cents per page rate, which should provide an overall cheaper price than the traditional method of recovering full production costs. This option also recognises the trend that users wish to only print out a portion of a document relevant to their needs rather than a whole document.

AusInfo offers, to government and non-government publishers, who wish to sell their printed publications through the Government Info Shop network, a range of cost and revenue sharing options which are modelled on private sector book selling arrangements. They are; agency sales (non-government titles), consignment (sell or return), wholesale agency, run-on and royalties. See the AusInfo web site http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/infoaccess/ia_home.htm.

Pricing of electronic information is referenced in the IMSC report, Management of Government Information as a National Strategic Resource (http://www.dcita.gov.au/ogo/imsc/imscrept.htm). This report puts forward the concept of the provision of government information 'at no more than the cost of transfer or dissemination'.

AusInfo applies the IMSC concept to the provision of most electronic online web sites it hosts or maintains on behalf of other agencies. The following Internet sites are freely accessible as the burden of developing the site and manipulating the data has already been borne by the government:

• Commonwealth Government Entry Point (http://www.fed.gov.au)
• Commonwealth Managers' Toolbox (http://www.cmt.gov.au)
• Government On-Lline Directory (GOLD) (http://gold.gov.au)
• Osiris (the industrial relations web site) (http://www.osiris.gov.au)
• AGIP, the online catalogue (http://www.agip.gov.au)
• LawSearch Online (http://www.lawsearch.gov.au)

Once a web site or gateway has been established, AusInfo employs a web site visitors analysis tool to provide statistics on hit rates, web pages visited, type of browser used, the country of the visitor, etc. These statistics are analysed to enhance access and refocus the site to match users needs. Some site analysis tools can identify whether a browser likely to be used by a person with a disability has accessed the site. This information is invaluable, and used strategically can enhance access for these types of browsers.

AusInfo also offers other electronic information products that may be sold, based on the user-pays principle, primarily to recover the cost of production. This is the case for the provision of electronic information held on physical storage devices such as a CD-ROM or diskette.

Gazettes are another whole-of-government series of publications coordinated and managed by AusInfo. Both printed and online versions are available on subscription to recover costs. See details on the range of Gazettes and services offered at; http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/infoman/im_gazettes.htm. Some of the Gazette titles are under review. Subscribers have been contacted to identify the appropriate method of delivery. See http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/infoman/gazette_news.htm for details on this.

AusInfo's third key area of managing access to government public information involves the developing, training and advising on public information best practice guidelines, frameworks and benchmarks.

As mentioned in the Commission's Issues Paper, AusInfo developed and organised the launch of the online Guidelines for Commonwealth Information Published in Electronic Formats. It is available on the Internet at: http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/guidelines/index.html. This document is freely accessible as an HTML document with downloadable Word and rich text format (RTF) versions. AusInfo has commissioned an outside expert to update some aspects of the document in the technology and access areas. The material offered will be assessed by a new editorial panel and by AusInfo before going live.

AusInfo is pleased with the level of endorsement the document has received from the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html) and the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Publications. AusInfo is also aware that it is referenced by the peak body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the site; http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Policy.

This level of recognition is important for both AusInfo and users of the Guidelines. That is, it indicates the process is transparent and that an independent review has taken place and provides assurance to users that they are applying whole-of-government best practice.

Whilst, at the moment these Guidelines have a high profile, it is regarded they complement the long-established Style Manual for authors, editors and printers (5^th edn). This is available in book form and a process is in train for the development of the next edition. The format for this edition is likely to be both electronic and print (http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/polcorp/smmain.htm).

Other access issues advocated by the education program and advisory services cover:

• non-discriminatory language and Plain English;
• presentation of images in an equal-gender manner;
• the identification of audiences for the government information and the need to present the information in a universally accessible manner; and
• identifying or branding of government information for authenticity and official status purposes.

AusInfo has responsibility for whole-of-government services and functions that protect the authenticity of government public information. This covers bibliographic cataloguing of the Commonwealth's public information and incorporating the data into printed and online catalogues (AGIP as mentioned above), the administration of Commonwealth Copyright on behalf of the Attorney-General's Department (see http://www.ausinfo.gov.au/infoman/im_copyright.htm ) and providing advice on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and other official symbols, as well as publishing conventions such as titling, imprint and incorporating universal numbering conventions.

All of these activities assist in the search and retrieval of government public information.