The Commonwealth holds an el dorado of data on everything and everybody – it can be used for good

It’s a resource researchers use for public-good projects, when they can access it. Which isn’t always

Uni Sydney researchers Tim Payne and Adele Haythornthwaite told a Senate committee hearing that three-year research grants have expired without there being a decision on data access.

There is a bill before parliament that would help with that – the basis of a government plan for a consistent process to make privacy-protected data-sets available for “public-benefit” research.

Which would be good, if “public-benefit” was defined in the bill.

“If research ‘in the public benefit’ cannot be easily and consistently identified by data custodians, poor decisions to refuse data requests are likely. Such outcomes would not be consistent with the policy intent that underpins the legislation,” Uni Sydney warned in its submission to the Senate inquiry.