Draft legislation could give Commonwealth departments and agencies the absolute authority to reject requests for data.

Australian Statistician David Gruen says the government's Data Availability and Transparency Bill would give agencies and departments discretion over when information is shared with other government organisations and external groups.

“Under the proposed legislation, there is no authority to compel custodians of public sector data (that is, agencies that hold and are responsible for their slices of public-sector data) to share data,” Dr Gruen said in a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia on Wednesday.

“Further, if data custodians decide not to share data, this cannot be overturned by the National Data Commissioner.”

But the chief statistician acknowledges the need for a balance to be struck between facilitating beneficial research and adequately safeguarding data.

He said sharing data with researchers was integral to the non-government school funding formula, the identification of drugs associated with heart failure, and improved methods to assess the impact of the COVID-19 virus outbreak on Australian businesses.

“There is enormous public value to be unlocked by making data as available as possible to trusted users,” Dr Gruen said.

“But to do so comes with a crucial caveat. That caveat is that a high standard of appropriate safeguards must be in place.”