Australia is about to embark on a major legislative shake-up with public and private data through the Data Availability and Transparency Act and the Consumer Data Right.

In CEDA’s 2018 report, Connecting People with Progress, we highlighted that ensuring that our regulatory frameworks keep pace with technological advances will continue to be a challenge with which Australian policymakers will have to contend.

In order to bring about better evaluation of public policy, improve the welfare of consumers and ensure that Australia’s digital future is secure, Australia’s governing frameworks around data and its usage will need to be strengthened. This includes but is not limited to investment in our digital capability, workforce, assessment of our privacy frameworks, and consumer education about data and its usage.

On the consumer side, there is a need to empower customers and put in place the right governance and transparency along with appropriate safeguards.

This report will assess whether Australia has the necessary skills, capabilities, frameworks and infrastructure in place to encourage data sharing and release, and how the Consumer Data right legislation has fared in progressing consumer welfare in the private sector.

This report will feed in to CEDA’s Public Interest Technology (PIT) program.