Is open Government possible?

A remit which was, somewhat surprisingly, allowed to reach the conference demanded the opening up of information from the public service in an attempt at what may be laughingly described as "open government". Yet the significance of the proceedings was the widespread support gained by the remit — perhaps aided by Michael Minogue's recent statements on the subject.

The remit was lost, but only narrowly indicating that National Party members are not overly dissillusioned by parliamentary forms of government.

Another area where gains were made was in the field of abortion. Although a remit calling for a referendum on the subject was defeated, many of the arguments against the remit were not overtly anti-abortion. A better indicator perhaps was the election of a member of ALRANZ [devoted to free, safe, legal abortion] as Womens Party Vice-President.