Creative Commons Australia and the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group response to the Productivity Commission Draft Report Data Availability and Use

Creative Commons Australia (‘CCAU’) and the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group (‘AOASG’) welcome the opportunity to comment on the Productivity Commission’s Draft Report on Data Availability and Use (‘Draft Report’). ‘Creative Commons is an international non - profit organisation that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally’. CCAU is an affiliate that supports Creative Commons in Australia. The AOASG is a non - profit organisation which aims to advocate, collaborate, raise awareness and lead and build capacity with respect to open access for all the outputs of scholarship in Australia and New Zealand. CCAU and AOASG support the implementation of policies to increase availability and use of data. We aim to contribute to the discussion regarding consumer rights, specifically, the right to access. As noted by the Commission in their Draft Report, the legal and policy frameworks under which data (both private and public) is collected and shared and accessed in Australia is not as progressive as other parts of the world , for example the European Union’s Open Data strategy as a core part of the Digital Single Market. Australia’s inaction in this ‘global movement’ may have a detrimental effect on innovation and research outputs. The Draft Report proposes a ‘fundamental change’ to the ‘legal and policy frameworks under which public and private sector data is collected’. This proposed fundamental change is timely, sensible and would better align Australia’s data practices with those of other international jurisdictions. CCAU and AOASG support the findings and draft recommendations, in particular those contained in Chapter 3 , ‘ Public Sector and Research Data Collection and Access’ , Chapter 6, ‘ Making Data Useful, Chapter 8, ‘ Options for Comprehensive Reform’ and Chapter 9 , ‘A framework ’ . The recommendations highlight a number of factors , including the importance of public interest with respect to facilitating access to publically funded data and information. The re is a clear need to align the Australian legal framework and policies with respect to data availability and use with the best practices and norms of other international jurisdictions. The advantages for Australia to be gained through alignment of legal and policy frameworks for data availability will include the facilitation of sharing of data between jurisdictions.