The Coalition for Open Government was a political pressure group formed in the late 1970s to promote

open government Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state a ...

in New Zealand. The Coalition disbanded in the-mid 1980s but re-formed in April 2007, in response to Government plans to rewrite the election finance laws.

History

The group was formed in September 1979 in opposition to the then

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Robert Muldoon Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 19215 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st prime minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Departing from National Party convention, Mu ...

Think Big Think Big was an interventionist state economic strategy of the Third National Government of New Zealand, promoted by the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (1975–1984) and his National government in the early 1980s. The Think Big schemes saw t ...

programme. It had concerns around the speed, secrecy and lack of public consultation of related legislation (particularly the

National Development Act 1979 The National Development Act 1979 was an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. It was a controversial Act and was repealed by the National Development Act Repeal Act 1986. Background To help speed up the Think Big initiative, the Third National G ...

). The opposition to the act and the group itself was led by Sir

Guy Powles Sir Guy Richardson Powles (5 April 1905 – 24 October 1994) was a New Zealand diplomat, the last Governor of Western Samoa and architect of Samoan independence, and New Zealand's first Ombudsman. Early life Powles was born in Ōtaki, north of ...

, the former Chief Ombudsman of New Zealand. It sought to allow greater access to government-held information. The pressure it exerted was important in the adoption of the

Official Information Act 1982 The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) is a statute of the New Zealand Parliament that creates a public right to access information held by government bodies. It is New Zealand's primary freedom of information law and an important part of New ...

Patrons

The group's patrons are

Lloyd Geering Sir Lloyd George Geering (born 26 February 1918) is a New Zealand theologian who faced charges of heresy in 1967 for teaching that the Bible's record of Jesus' death and resurrection is not true. He considers Christian and Muslim fundamenta ...

Patricia Grace Patricia Frances Grace (; born 17 August 1937) is a New Zealand writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. She began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher. Her early short stories were published in magazines, leadin ...

Anton Oliver Anton David Oliver (born 9 September 1975) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Previously, he played as a hooker for Marlborough (one of the predecessors to today's Tasman side) and Otago in the National Provincial Championship and A ...

and Paul Harris.

Notes

References

* 1979 establishments in New Zealand Political groupings in New Zealand 1980s disestablishments in New Zealand 2007 establishments in New Zealand {{Poli-org-stub

History

Patrons

See also

Notes

References