Federal public servants will soon have a ‘responsibility to share’ data for public benefit, but they need to lean on the experts and be careful not to overreach

After a long period of consultation around upcoming federal data-sharing and release reforms, questions about consent and commercial use remain the most controversial. While a lot of researchers and policy-makers are keen to unlock latent value in the data held by the Australian Public Service, the need to maintain social license looms large.

David Kalisch, the recent former Australian Statistician, knows something about being accused of overreach.

Months after he thought the Australian Bureau of Statistics had done some good — finding a way to use the personal information collected with Census data to link up datasets and provide more valuable statistics to researchers working to improve the health and welfare of Australians — it stood accused of going too far in the media.