Victorians will be able to have state parliament literally in the palm of their hands with webcasts of proceedings to begin from August 19.

Premier John Brumby says the webcasts are part of a suite of measures he is delivering to open up government and the parliament to more Victorians.

“(Since becoming Premier) I have taken action on a number of initiatives to increase public involvement in our strong democracy and webcasting the Victorian Parliament is the latest of these actions,” he says.

The webcasts will be for the entire day’s proceedings of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council and will be available at the Victorian Parliament website at www.parliament.vic.gov.au

Other steps Mr Brumby is taking to make government and parliament more open and accessible include:

• The Annual Statement of Government Intentions: This was released on first sitting day – for the first time informing Victorians of the Government’s legislative priorities for the year;
• The Premier’s new website – www.premier.vic.gov.au – which provides the latest information about Government activities and policies and the capacity for the public to provide direct feedback to Government;
• Transcripts of media conferences and speeches: these are now available at www.premier.vic.gov.au for the general public and journalists;
• Greater transparency around Government boards, with a new website launched giving names of all Victorian public body board members and remuneration bands at www.publicboards.vic.gov.au;
• More public information on ministerial travel, with quarterly reports on ministerial overseas travel on DIIRD website with details of costs. See www.diird.vic.gov.au; and
• Webcasting: funding was provided in the 2008-09 State Budget for audio and video-webcasting of Parliament. Audio-webcasting will begin in the August sitting week. Video webcasting will be introduced at a later date.