Governments around the world receive a lot of criticism and a lot of it has to do with citizens not knowing where their hard-earned tax-payer dollars are going. Over in the US, the White House has done something of the sort, releasing a map tool where users can easily see all the community-based programs it’s working on right across the country. It’s something that Australia can and should copy.
Yes, we can go through budget documents and publicly available data showing where tax-payer dollars are going, but nothing beats the simplicity of visualising the data on an easy to digest map. The White House’ new map tool, built in partnership with 15 US agencies, has got it so right. You can check it out here.
It’s built on an open source foundation, with the source code readily available on GitHub, and the White House has committed to providing regular data updates. It’s just a great way for the government to communicates all sorts of information to the people it serves. It will also alleviate some for the heat governments get for not being transparent enough with their spending.
It’s unlikely we’ll see this kind of initiative from the Australian Government any time soon. But it’s certainly nice to dream. Maybe a group of developers who are passionate about data and have a lot of spare time will want to make a map like this for Australia using publicly available information?
[Via Wired]
Comments
7 responses to “A Visual Map Showing Government Investments Around Australia? Wouldn’t It Be Nice”
We do receive similar information on the back of our tax returns in a very high level form. I do like what the Americans have done to enable greater transparency in spending. I agree, I don’t see that happening with our technically inept government.
The NSW gov maps the budget throughout the state – which you can find here:
http://myinfrastructure.planning.nsw.gov.au/
The interface is a bit clunky, but its a good start..
The cost of some of these projects is mind boggling in comparison with what similar projects costed just a few years back.
The Australian equivalent would just show a heap of highways connecting some mines.
With a couple of gulags to chuck refugees in and you’ve got it.
“Coal is the future” as our onion eating goat of a PM stated between uttering “death cult” and “the roads of the 20th century” in front of 12 flags and a muttering of “it’s all Labor’s fault”.
The gulags are in other countries.
I thought such a map would be white and Tassie be left off it.