The Greens response to ALIA's ten questions

1. Will your party endorse, support and contribute to the funding of the National Year of Reading 2012? What is your party's reaction to the fact that 46% of Australians aged 15-74 do not have the prose literacy skills that are needed for everyday life and work?

The Greens support initiatives to increase literacy and reading, given the centrality of these skills to every individual's participation in our society. We have no hesitation supporting the National Year of Reading and any other initiatives that promote greater engagement with reading and literacy.

2. Does your party believe in the benefits of a national early childhood literacy initiative for Australian under-fives?

The Greens have a particular interest in early childhood learning and recognize the pivotal role it plays in a child's ongoing educational development. Greens education spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, recently announced a range of new initiatives to support early childhood education and care, including better staffing ratios, nationally consistent education and care standards (these would cover literacy), and a number of other measures.

3. Does your party support mandatory ISP filtering?

No. Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam has been the Parliament's most vocal opponent of the Government's proposed mandatory ISP filter. Like the entire ICT sector, he considers that the filter will not achieve its stated objectives, but it will potentially cause problems with internet speeds and reliability, and it runs the risk of restricting freedom of information and expression beyond what is acceptable to much of our community. See footage of Senator Ludlam's recent comments on the filter in the Senate.

However, Senator Ludlam is interested in measures that will truly crack down on threats to online safety, especially threats to children and young people. He is consulting with experts in the field as an active participant in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Cyber Safety. Senator Ludlam will be launching an alternative approach to online safety during the course of the election campaign; an approach based on optional PC-based filtering, online safety initiatives with young people, and law enforcement to tackle cyber crime such as child pornography.

4. Does your party recognise the value of a national digitisation strategy?

The Greens support national digitisation, as we are keen to ensure the longevity of important records and, for environmental reasons, to move away from a heavy reliance on paper.

5. What role does your party envisage that libraries will play in the roll out of the NBN?

As libraries are one of the main places that the public accesses the internet, they are likely to see an increase in patronage as the NBN brings ever more services online. They will play a key role in supporting their customers to access the new services. They may also find that remote access to their services increases.

6. Will your party provide funding for the purchase of quality digital content for all Australians through the Electronic Resources Australia project?

The Australian Greens recognise the important role national site licensing and the Electronic Resources Australia project play in ensuring broad and equitable access to important electronic information resources. We are supportive of the project, and open to advice on what additional resources are required.

7. Does your party recognise the potential of libraries to deliver social, educational and economic benefits at a national level?

The Greens Arts policy expressly recognises that 'national libraries and collecting institutions are essential to our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, and must be maintained and developed as the repositories of cultural heritage.'

8. Is your party in agreement with the principle that there should be a teacher librarian in every school? Will your party support the continuance and conclusion of the House of Representatives Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools?

The Greens certainly support the continuation of the House of Representatives' inquiry. Should the inquiry continue, we will monitor the outcomes with interest, including any recommendations with respect to the prevalence of teacher librarians in schools.

9. Will your party recognise the role of public libraries in providing access to e-government services and publications and how will it support this role?

As mentioned in answer to question 5, we are aware of the role libraries play in providing broad community access to online services. This looks set to expand as more government services are offered online, particularly once the NBN has been rolled out. It is difficult to anticipate precisely how this will play out at this stage given that many aspects of the NBN and the Government's future use of it remain unclear. However, the Greens certainly wish to see libraries sustain the capacity to support the community's use of and access to information and we will monitor their needs in the new digital environment keenly.

10. What is your party's position about ensuring free and longterm public access to government information, particularly government publications and e-government services?

The Greens generally place a high importance on open Government. Ready access to Government information is in the interests of a strong democracy. A number of clauses of our policies are particularly relevant. Consider clauses 10, 11, 23-25 and 49 of the Greens Media and Communications policy.

There's a certain amount of repetition due to the structure of our policies, so we haven't reproduced all of them here, but the Greens Media and Communications policy is available in full online:

10. documents placed in the public domain by government should be accessible with free non-proprietary software, and public data should be made available in open, interoperable formats

11. the government should lead by example and embrace open source and open standards.

25. government to be an active proponent and contributor to open standard fora.

Our Community Participation in Government policy provides:

5. community groups and individuals must be provided with sufficient information to enable meaningful participation

10. governments to provide free and timely information to citizens

11. [The Australia Greens will] strengthen Freedom of Information (FOI) laws and exempt community groups and individuals from fees for material gained under FOI.