Data sharing laws wouldn't allow Robodebt repeat

Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert is moving to implement a new framework governing the sharing of and release of government data, an area that has been labelled a factor in the creation of government silos restricting collaboration.

While the discussion paper released ahead of legislation expected next year emphasises sharing data would become the norm, there would be limits on how the data could be shared.

"A much larger part of the journey is changing the Australian public service culture to achieve the paradigm shift from 'need to know' to 'responsibility to share' where there is clear public benefit," it said.

Sharing of data between public service agencies for compliance purposes has been controversial since the Liberal government ramped up online compliance against people who had received Centrelink payments, by matching their earnings as reported to the Tax Office with fortnightly earnings reported to receive welfare.

Matching data sets between agencies for compliance wouldn't be allowed under the legislation being developed, but would still be allowed under other legislation, like a recent amendment to the Crimes Act to share data to prevent fraud.

The new legislation would also block sharing of data for national security and law enforcement, a move which is supported by the national intelligence bodies, the paper said.

Sharing data for research, developing policy and for service delivery would be allowed under the new legislation, with an aim to have forms partly pre-filled by data provided to another government organisation, similar to processes already in place for tax returns with myTax.

It would allow people to share data once in applications for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the disability support pension, the discussion paper said.

The Canberra Times