Public data sharing legislation, privacy and sharing of health and social welfare data in Australia: a legal and policy document analysis

Australian public sector agencies want to improve access to public sector data to help conduct better informed policy analysis and research and have passed legislation to improve access to this data. Much of this public sector data also contains personal information or health information and is therefore governed by state and federal privacy law which places conditions on the use of personal and health information. This paper therefore analyses how these data sharing laws compare with one another, as well as whether they substantially change the grounds on which public sector data can be shared. It finds that data sharing legislation, by itself, does not substantially change the norms embedded in privacy and health information management law governing the sharing of personal and health information. However, this paper notes that there can still be breaches of social licence even where data sharing occurs lawfully. Further, this paper notes that there are several inconsistencies between data sharing legislation across Australia. This paper therefore proposes reform, policy, and technical strategies to resolve the impact of these inconsistencies.