The Australian Data Strategy document released today - for consultation until mid-2022 - is characterised as complementing the Digital Economy Strategy and the Digital Government Strategy.
It is a iteration of a long succession of grand strategy documents that were marketed as enabling but typically obfuscated failures, disregarded civil society concerns and expired amid interdepartmental rivalries and ministerial revolving doors. Fortunately we appear to have moved on from the (unsurprisingly) foiled ambitions of a succession of bodies such as the unlamented National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE), Australian Government Information Office (AGIMO) and the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).
The Strategy states that
Data is a valuable national asset that, when leveraged effectively, can bring transformative benefits to its users and to individuals and the economy more broadly. The Australian Government proved this in its response to the initial COVID-19 outbreak, when it leveraged private and public data to respond to the health and economic effects of the virus. The private sector also has a long history of using data to benefit its clients through better and more tailored services and offerings. Enshrining the effective, safe, ethical and secure use of data as an important foundational tool for businesses, individuals, the non-government and government sectors in an Australian Data Strategy will help to support the Government’s vision to become a modern data-driven society by 2030.
We are not a modern society? Not data-driven?
The Australian Data Strategy signposts the Australian Government’s data intent and efforts over the period to 2025. It focuses on three key themes:
- maximising the value of data – describes why data is important, its economic and social value, its use in responding to priority issues, and the benefit that can be gained through using and safely sharing data. Data can create new value when shared between different levels of government, and the private and non-government sectors.
- trust and protection – describes the settings that can be adopted in the private and public sectors to keep data safe and secure, and the frameworks available to protect Australians’ data and ensure its ethical use through the entire data lifecycle.
- enabling data use – sets out approaches and requirements to leverage the value of data, such as capabilities, legislation, management and integration of data, and engaging internationally.
The document considers both public sector data, which is managed by the government, and data in the broader economy, where the Australian Government both enables data users and regulates its use and sharing to provide greater certainty in how people deal with their data.
The Australian Data Strategy is supported by a living Action Plan which sets out tangible measures the Government is implementing to improve our data settings across the economy. The Action Plan will be regularly reviewed to ensure it evolves to meet the changing priorities of Australians; and continuously raises the bar to meet our goal of being a leading digital economy and society by 2030.
While the Data Strategy and Action Plan do not introduce new regulations or legislation, they align with a range of existing legislation, strategies, policies, and reviews which regulate data. These include the Privacy Act 1988 (and its review, currently underway) and the Freedom of Information Act 1982; the Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020 (the DAT Bill); the 2015 Public Data Policy Statement; the Digital Economy Strategy; the Cyber Security Strategy; the Productivity Commission’s 2017 Inquiry into Data Availability and Use; the Consumer Data Right; and many others.
Something there for everyone, particularly if you don't ask the hard questions.
The Data Strategy brings together these diverse elements for the first time, setting out current and forward data settings. It signals the Australian Government’s intent to use data to bring tangible benefits to the Australian people and enable data as the lifeblood of our digital economy, including through the Government engaging with the private sector to secure economic and social data for limited approved uses.
Finally, the Australian Government acknowledges this Strategy is the beginning of a conversation rather than its conclusion. We welcome your submissions in response to this Strategy which will inform our future data activities. We will close responses to the Australian Data Strategy by the end of June 2022.
Our vision
Australia’s first Data Strategy sets our vision to create a national ecosystem of data that is accessible, reliable and relevant and easily used to power our national endeavour and become a modern data-driven society by 2030. The Data Strategy seeks to maximise data’s value, protect it to build trust and enable its use. We will do this by creating a data system that will help businesses determine where opportunities are, and provide new products and services; supporting governments at all levels, as well as non-government organisations, to determine where policies and services will achieve the greatest amount of public good; and helping Australians in their personal lives as they determine what services and products they want to consume.
By 2025, we will create a mature and well-positioned data system in Australia that will deliver benefits for all Australians. Businesses will be encouraged to make better use of the data they receive and generate to complete transactions, tailor services and deliver new products.
The Government will make more publicly held data available, creating easy, intuitive access to Australian Government open data, data inventories, data sharing agreements and data visualisation tools. We will develop the infrastructure needed to enable the better use of government data, underpinning new data assets using data shared between the Commonwealth and states and territories, and drive better sharing of and certainty about data. And we will underpin these by creating a modern data system through investment in enhancing data maturity, skills and capability within the APS, and implementing the trust frameworks proposed under the Data Availability and Transparency Scheme.
We will ensure data measures in the Action Plan are regularly updated to align with this vision, and in 2025, we will conduct a full review of our achievements gained through safely sharing and using data.
the policy landscape
The Australian Data Strategy exists as one of the highest-level whole-of-government policies in an ecosystem of other strategies, plans, policies and frameworks in the data and digital sector. These different policies ensure that we have the right settings in related fields, including an overarching vision to 2030 through the Digital Economy Strategy; keeping Australians safe through the Australian Cyber Security Strategy 2020; and showing our steps to becoming a top three digital government in the world through the Digital Government Strategy (see Figure 1). Many of these other policies are referred to in this Strategy.
Maximising the value of data
We recognise the need to improve economy-wide data use and re-use, delivering outcomes for individuals and businesses, and helping governments to deliver more effectively. We are:
+ Explaining the benefits data can bring to consumers, businesses, researchers and the Government, and how the data generated and used by different sectors can support others.
+ Breaking down unnecessary barriers and simplify data use and sharing, enabling people, organisations and governments to get more value out of data.
+ Recognising the importance of data throughout its entire lifecycle, and describing how data can be useful to different people.
Trust and protection
We describe how the Government keeps data safe and secure We also use and manage data in appropriate ways. We are:
+ Improving understanding of cyber threats, both within and outside the public sector.
+ Hosting data securely as we move toward the cloud, through the Australian Government hosting certification framework and protective security policy framework.
+ Progressing reforms to strengthen privacy protections online, including in new technologies like AI.
+ Keeping data safe, while having a plan in place to act quickly and effectively to respond to data breaches.
+ Using data in ways consistent with public expectations.
Enabling data use
Our intent is to enable greater use of data by investing in data infrastructure, management, skills and capability. We will be:
+ Integrating data where it can help inform policy development, programs, and service delivery, or business and consumer outcomes.
+ Building data skills and capability, investing in education and training pathways for a modern Australian workforce that can support a data-driven economy.
+ Managing data well to reduce unnecessary regulations, improve data quality and build organisational data maturity within the Government.
+ Engaging overseas to adopt modern data standards and participating in initiatives to develop a common language when dealing with data.
Putting aside skepticism about the rhetoric, how will the grand vision be given effect?
'Our vision will be achieved through actions that build on existing policies and activities', with an Action Plan covering
- Making data available
- Setting the guardrails for a modern data economy
- Creating the infrastructure we need
- Building a modern data system.
Those elements are glossed as follows
Making data available
- Progress work to build a new ‘front door’ to guide Australians and businesses towards the right data to suit their needs.
- Implement the DAT Scheme to facilitate data sharing and build trust and confidence.
Setting the guardrails for a modern data economy
- Ensure we have protections for robust and modern cyber security and privacy settings.
- Give Australians better visibility and control of their data through the Consumer Data Right.
Creating the infrastructure we need
- Develop the data assets we need, like the National Disability Data Asset.
- Enable greater portability and certainty about data by expanding domestic and cross-border data flows and by exploring ownership and property rights for data.
Building a modern data system
- Build data expertise and capability across the APS workforce through the Data Professional Stream.
- Build the right tools and systems for government data maturity, implement processes, and apply standards to make better use of data across all levels of government.
