Data and Government: Can Data Inform Design Decisions for Smarter Community Living?
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When governments rely on evidence and data, impactful policy can be made. Harvesting data gives policy-makers valuable insight into how decisions impact communities. By understanding societal challenges, community preferences and individuals’ needs, governments can design solutions that benefit Australians’ current living situations and address complex issues.
What’s more, governments who make decisions informed by data and research are more likely to gain community trust. While politically motivated decisions are often met with scepticism, facts ground government choices in credibility.
This can harbour policy approval and citizen uptake.
What is needed to yield the benefits of data backed policy?
1. Quality and Comprehensive Data
Evidence-informed policy can only be as effective as the data that underpins it. Decision makers must ensure that any data being relied upon is credible and has been gathered from a comprehensive range of sources.
Data that only captures the needs of some citizens and not others will have limited value when it comes to designing for the collective. When peoples’ needs are not captured, policy is unable to address their concerns and mitigate their challenges.
Extensive research is needed to ensure that persons on the fringe of society are not excluded from design decisions and that their voices are heard.
Similarly, evidence informed policy must be based on the most up-to-date data. As the economic, social and environmental landscape of Australia transforms with time, so too will citizen needs and values.
For example, the COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to the fore in the daily lives of Australians; challenges that may not have been felt as strongly before. Financial instability, job insecurity and health fears became a cornerstone of many households across Australia from 2020.
In order to address those concerns, State and Federal government needed access to timely data to ensure that policy was targeted at the present challenges being experienced across the nation.
Data pre-dating COVID-19 would have been worthless in tackling these contextual challenges.
2. Open Data and Responsible Sharing Practices
Trust is the foundation of data informed policy. To facilitate trust, decision-makers must ensure that data practices are secure, transparent and open.
They must only gather information that is necessary and act honestly when it comes to problems and breaches.
Dr Vanessa Teague, researcher and Adjunct Associate Professor at Australian National University, believes that government data should be open by default, stating that openness
>Incentivises better work. If data is mishandled and a mistake is made, it will become evident.
>Incentivises merit based tenders. Work is more likely to be given to those with the highest level of expertise as it will come under scrutiny.
>Allows for the community to make improvements. If the community is aware of how data is being handled, they can suggest how to better security and help fix errors.
>Respecting privacy earns trust. Government needs to respect privacy by not bringing about unnecessary data driven solutions.
A submission co-authored by Dr Teague with University of Melbourne’s Dr Chris Cullane and Dr Benjamin Rubenstein in response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on data availability and use detailed the level of openness required by government.
According to the researchers:
Government should be entirely transparent about its use of people’s data, including down to the level of technical and mathematical detail. Citizens deserve to know what data the government collects about them, how it is shared, when it may be published or linked, and how it will be kept secure. Openness is good for cybersecurity because problems and weaknesses can be found and fixed. This is an opportunity for Australia to set a high standard for protecting privacy, improving data access and protecting consumers.[1]
"Analysts are needed to collate and translate datasets into comprehensible reviews so that members can clearly understand the issues facing their communities. Members can then use that information to guide their decision making. Governments are therefore expected to engage directly with researchers and analysts before, during and after designing solutions."
3. People and Partnerships
Making data informed policy relies on more than just researchers and government. It is not the responsibility of members of parliament to trawl through wads of statistics – nor should it be.
Analysts are vital when there is a need to collate and translate datasets into comprehensible and cogent reviews, so that members can clearly and speedily understand the key issues facing their communities.
Members can then use that clear information to guide their decision making. Governments are therefore expected to engage directly with researchers and analysts before, during and after designing solutions.
Partnerships also present valuable opportunities to design effective policy and implement smart solutions. Collaboration between the public and private sectors enables a holistic understanding of how issues impact organisations and businesses with varied interests and priorities.
Similarly, strategic cooperation across different levels of government offers councils and local, State and federal governments the chance to participate in designing impactful solutions with mutual value.
Data driven design holds great benefits for society by providing the government with unique insights into community challenges and desires. This can lead to impactful solutions.
However, making use of this powerful mechanism hinges on trust. In a world where cyber attacks and data breaches are becoming all too common, it is the responsibility of the government to mitigate public scepticism and doubt.
Government must hold itself to exemplary standards when it comes to dealing with personal data. And they can do that by establishing secure and robust systems, only requesting data that is necessary and being open to public scrutiny.
Meeting this standard will not only harbour citizen trust, but will give decision-makers the opportunity to drive broad-reaching transformation that positively impacts all Australians.
[1] Cullane, Dr Chris, Dr Benjamin Rubenstein and Dr Vanessa Teague (n.d.) Response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on data availability and use [PDF 580KB], Australian Government Productivity Commission, accessed 11 March 2023.
