Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022

The Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022 (Cth) (DAT Act) is an Act of the Australian Parliament that authorises and regulates access to data held by the Australian Government.[1]

Data Availability and Transparency 2022
Parliament of Australia
  • An Act to authorise the sharing of public sector data, and for related purposes
CitationNo 11 of 2022 [1]
Territorial extentAustralia
Passed byAustralian House of Representatives
Passed30 March 2022
Passed bySenate
Passed30 March 2022
Assented to31 March 2022
Commenced1 April 2022
Date of expiry1 April 2027
Legislative history
First chamber: Australian House of Representatives
Bill titleData Availability and Transparency Act 2020
Introduced byStuart Robert
First reading9 December 2020
Second reading30 March 2022
Third reading30 March 2022
Second chamber: Senate
Bill titleData Availability and Transparency Act 2022
First reading30 March 2022
Second reading30 March 2022
Third reading30 March 2022
Final stages
Finally passed both chambers30 March 2022
Keywords
data sharing
Status: In force

The Australian Parliament passed the Act into law in March 2022.[2][3][4][5][6] The Act came into effect on 1 April 2022.[7]

The Act creates a public-sector data sharing scheme that permits Australian Government (Commonwealth) bodies to share their data with other Commonwealth bodies, Australian state or territory government bodies, or Australian universities;[8] these entities must be accredited, before they can obtain and use the data.[8][9]

The Act requires that any sharing of data under the scheme must:

  • be for one or more of the permitted data sharing purposes;[8]
  • be consistent with data sharing principles;[8] and
  • within a data sharing agreement.[8]

The Act specifically precludes sharing of data under the scheme for law enforcement-related purposes or national security purposes.[8] If the shared data includes personal information, privacy protections also apply.[8][9]

The Act permits sharing of data under the scheme for three purposes only:[8]

  • delivery of government services;
  • informing government policy and programs; and
  • research and development.

The Act establishes a National Data Commissioner to be the regulator of this data sharing scheme.[8]

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References

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  1. ^ Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022 (Cth)
  2. ^ Hendry, Justin (2022-03-31). "Public sector data sharing laws pass parliament with Labor changes". iTnews. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  3. ^ Burton, Tom (2022-04-01). "End to multiple forms as 'tell us once' becomes possible". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
  4. ^ Hendry, Justin (2023-03-17). "Give private sector access to govt data: Productivity Commission". InnovationAus. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  5. ^ Cho, George (2023). Information Technology Law in Australia. Kluwer Law International. ISBN 9789403522968.
  6. ^ Hendry, Justin (2022-07-28). "Data sharing regime "open for business" as accreditation begins". IT news. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  7. ^ Keelara, R. and P. Haywood (2023), "Building the data and digital foundations of health systems", in Ready for the Next Crisis? Investing in Health System Resilience, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi:10.1787/9b8a7ce8-en. page 386
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Witzleb, Normann (2023-04-12), Hennemann, Moritz; Lewinski, Kai von; Wawra, Daniela; Widjaja, Thomas (eds.), "Responding to Global Trends? Privacy Law Reform in Australia", Data Disclosure, De Gruyter, pp. 147–168, doi:10.1515/9783111010601-009, ISBN 978-3-11-101060-1
  9. ^ a b Katie Logos, Russell Brewer, Colette Langos, Bryce Westlake, Establishing a framework for the ethical and legal use of web scrapers by cybercrime and cybersecurity researchers: learnings from a systematic review of Australian research, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, Volume 31, Issue 3, Autumn 2023, Pages 186–212, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijlit/eaad023