Victoria to open access to government data

Victoria will increase access to government data in an effort to spur the economy, said the state’s minister for technology, Gordon Rich-Phillips.

The data will be available online in a machine-readable format on a revamped Vic government data directory.

“Each year the Victorian Coalition Government invests millions of dollars in producing and acquiring high-quality data about our state,” Rich-Phillips said. “Giving recurrent and reliable access to this data is a long overdue stimulus that Victorian businesses and the community will be able to finally harness in developing innovative applications that create new services or improve existing ones.”

Rich-Phillips expects the new data access policies to drive new technologies services and jobs, he said.

Data access under the previous Labor government was restrictive, fragmented and costly, said Rich-Phillips, a Coalition member and frequent critic of Labor. “Under the Victorian Coalition Government’s DataVic Access and IP Policies, it will be significantly easier to identify Victorian Government data and to access it, in most cases, at no cost.”

Some data will still be restricted for reasons including privacy, public safety, security and law enforcement, public health, pre-existing contractual arrangements or to comply with other laws, he said.

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