Submission on the Australian Data Strategy: Submission to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

This submission responds to the Strategy in a focused manner that addresses two of the key themes of maximising the value of data; and trust and protection of data. These two themes frame the structure of the submission with Section 2 examining how value is created from data across its lifecycle and Section 3 considering the importance of trustworthiness in formulating a regulatory approach to ensure that data management policies and regulation are fit-for-purpose and benevolent to society.
This submission focuses primarily on data extracted from the built environment and is structured to reflect the data lifecycle within the smart city. The choice to contextualise the Australian Data Strategy within the context of the built environment arises for two key reasons:
• Smart cities are built on the integration of automation and data that enables examination of the value creation process in data and its socio-political impacts. 1
• Datasets from a range of infrastructure projects and construction sites are now being combined by smart city proponents across public, private and civic sectors to create digital models with ever-increasing urban footprints.
The data collected in our cities contribute to an emerging digital model that offers the possibility of automated decision-making to determine how we allocate infrastructure, resources and services to urban occupants. Consequently, our interactions with data-focused technologies are particularly acute in smart cities and thus provide a strong means of determining how value can be created from data and managed in trustworthy ways.