✦ Plain-English Summary

Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020

What it does

The government can now share data held by public sector agencies (like Centrelink, the ATO, or Medicare) with other government bodies and approved organisations for specific purposes—but only under strict rules. Agencies have to follow mandatory agreements, privacy protections, and reporting requirements when they hand over this data.

Why it matters

This opens the door for government departments to work together using your data more easily, which could mean faster, more joined-up services. But it also means your information is moving between more agencies, so the safeguards matter—if they're weak, your privacy takes a hit; if they're strong, you get better public services without losing control of your data.

Key details

• Data sharing only happens for approved purposes — agencies can't just swap data freely; they need a legal reason tied to government functions, research, or transparency
• Privacy rules still apply — organisations sharing data must have privacy coverage (like following the Privacy Act), and there are mandatory terms they must include in data sharing agreements about how data gets used and protected
• Someone's watching — there's a Commissioner overseeing this, agencies have to report data breaches, and they need to explain why they're not sharing data if asked

Official Description

Introduced with the Data Availability and Transparency (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2020 to implement a scheme to authorise and regulate access to Australian Government data, the bill: authorises public sector data custodians to share data with accredited users in accordance with specific authorisations, purposes, principles and agreements; specifies the specific responsibilities imposed on data scheme entities; establishes and specifies the functions and powers of the National Data Commissioner as the regulator of the scheme; establishes and specifies the functions and membership of the National Data Advisory Council as an advisory body to the commissioner in relation to sharing and use of public sector data; and establishes the regulation and enforcement framework for the scheme.

Committee Referrals

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills; Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.