Nicholas Horne and Philip Hamilton
The 2018–19 Budget provides a total of $65.1 million over
2018–2022 for significant new data sharing and release arrangements.[1]
Agencies in the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio will account for $20.5 million
of this funding ($15.4 million in additional funding and $5.1 million coming from
agencies’ existing resources), and agencies within the Treasury portfolio will
account for $44.6 million (all additional funding).[2]
The new data sharing and release arrangements will span:
- ‘developing guidance on data sharing arrangements’
- ‘monitoring and addressing risks and ethical considerations on
data use’
- ‘managing the process for high value datasets’, and
-
the establishment of a new ‘national consumer data right’ (CDR)
relating to the transfer of data between service providers in specified sectors.[3]
The first three of these elements will be the subject of
legislation and will be the responsibility of a new entity to be established,
the National Data Commissioner. Introduction of the new CDR will be via
legislation—‘primarily through changes to the Competition and
Consumer Act 2010 [Cth]’.[4] The Government has stated
that introduction of the CDR will start in the banking, energy and
telecommunications sectors.[5] Treasury portfolio
agencies will have carriage of introducing the CDR as follows:
-
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will
assess the cost/benefit of ‘designating sectors that will be subject to the
CDR’[6]
and will develop rules for CDR governance and data standards
-
the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) will
examine the privacy impact, and
-
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
will finalise the data standards.[7]
The ACCC and OAIC will have responsibility for,
respectively, oversight of the CDR system and consumer complaints concerning
the CDR.[8]
The origin of the new data sharing and release arrangements
lies in a 2017
Productivity Commission report on data availability and use. The
Productivity Commission made a number of recommendations including a new legislative
regime for data sharing and release, a comprehensive right for consumers and
small/medium businesses concerning data use, and a national data custodian to
oversee the new data sharing and release arrangements.[9]
Shortly before the Budget, in its response to the
Productivity Commission’s recommendations, the Government announced the
creation of the new National Data Commissioner, new legislation governing data
sharing and release, and the creation of the new CDR.[10]
Commentary on the new data sharing and release arrangements
has emphasised the significance of the CDR as a ‘major regulatory change’ while
raising doubts about existing federal government capability for its
implementation.[11]
In its report the Productivity Commission outlined
comparable data governance arrangements in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and
the European Union, where a General Data Protection Regulation will come into
effect on 25 May 2018.[12]
[1].
The budget figures in this brief have been taken from the following
document unless otherwise sourced: Australian Government, Budget
Measures 2018–19: Budget Paper No.2: 2018–19, pp. 166, 186.
[2].
Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio agencies are the Departments of: the
Prime Minister and Cabinet; Agriculture and Water Resources; Education and
Training; Home Affairs; Industry, Innovation and Science; Health; Human
Services; and Social Services, with other portfolio agencies including the
Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Taxation Office. Treasury
portfolio agencies are the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner.
[3].
Australian Government, Budget Measures 2018–19: Budget Paper No.2:
2018–19, op. cit., p. 186.
[4].
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), ‘Data availability
and use: the Australian Government’s response to the Productivity Commission
data availability and use inquiry: the consumer data right’, DPMC website.
[5].
Ibid.
[6].
Australian Government, Budget Measures 2018–19: Budget Paper No.2:
2018–19, op. cit., p. 186.
[7].
Ibid.
[8].
DPMC, ‘Data availability and use: the Australian Government’s response
to the Productivity Commission data availability and use inquiry: the consumer
data right’, op. cit.
[9].
Productivity Commission, Data
Availability and Use: Productivity Commission Inquiry Report No. 82,
Productivity Commission, Canberra, March 2017, p. 2.
[10].
M Keenan (Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Prime
Minister for Digital Transformation), M Sukkar (Assistant Minister to the
Treasurer), Government
response to Productivity Commission inquiry into data availability and use,
media release, 1 May 2018; DPMC, ‘Data availability and use: the
Australian Government’s response to the Productivity Commission data
availability and use inquiry’, op. cit.
[11].
T Burton, ‘Canberra
creates a brave new data world’, The Mandarin, 3 May 2018.
[12].
Productivity Commission, Data Availability and Use: Productivity
Commission Inquiry Report No. 82, op. cit., pp. 498–507.
All online articles accessed May 2018.
For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.
© Commonwealth of Australia
Creative Commons
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, and to the extent that copyright subsists in a third party, this publication, its logo and front page design are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia licence.
In essence, you are free to copy and communicate this work in its current form for all non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute the work to the author and abide by the other licence terms. The work cannot be adapted or modified in any way. Content from this publication should be attributed in the following way: Author(s), Title of publication, Series Name and No, Publisher, Date.
To the extent that copyright subsists in third party quotes it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of the publication are welcome to webmanager@aph.gov.au.
This work has been prepared to support the work of the Australian Parliament using information available at the time of production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position of the Parliamentary Library, nor do they constitute professional legal opinion.
Any concerns or complaints should be directed to the Parliamentary Librarian. Parliamentary Library staff are available to discuss the contents of publications with Senators and Members and their staff. To access this service, clients may contact the author or the Library‘s Central Enquiry Point for referral.