KPMG Australia (KPMG) welcomed the opportunity to provide a submission to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Australian Data Strategy (the strategy).
KPMG supports the Australian Government's ambition to position Australia as a leading digital economy and society by 2030 and commends the government on taking steps to achieve this through the Digital Economy Strategy, Digital Government Strategy, and now the Australian Data Strategy.
As outlined in the strategy, data is critical to achieving this ambition and a mature data ecosystem will deliver significant benefits for people, businesses and governments. It is critical that the right settings are in place to both unlock the value that data offers while ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent its misuse and potential harm.
In this response, KPMG has drawn on work from previous submissions to various forums including the Review of the Privacy Act, the Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020, and most recently the Digital Technology Taskforce’s consultation on Artificial Intelligence and Automated Decision Making Regulation.
KPMG notes the complexity of legislation that can apply to digital technologies and data, as well as various reforms that are currently underway. Entities must currently manage and comply with a range of data-related regulatory requirements that exist in overlapping and in some cases fragmented frameworks at both a state and federal level. In our view it is critical to carefully consider how legislation or regulation interacts with existing and proposed frameworks in order to minimise complexity, overlap and unnecessary regulatory burden.
We look forward to continued engagement with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as it seeks to finalise the strategy.
