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New banking, energy and telco data services promised

Tom Burton
Tom BurtonGovernment editor

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The federal government is looking for developers to propose innovative services in the financial, energy and telecommunication sectors to give consumers better information and choice of providers off the back of a $111 million expansion of the consumer data right (CDR).

The expansion is part of a plan to extend CDR across the economy. Digital Economy Minister Jane Hume told The Australian Financial Review “imagination is the limit” for using the data from these services to provide innovative consumer services.

Digital Economy Minister Senator Jane Hume: “We’ve done a lot of learnings in open banking that are very much transferable to those other sectors.”  Alex Ellinghausen

The expansion of CDR is part of a $1.2 billion package of measures to develop key digital infrastructure and skills, and to embrace standards for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 6G mobility.

The consumer data right is being driven by Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to promote greater mobility and richer service options for consumers when choosing their bank, energy or telecommunication providers.

The consumer data right allows customers to instruct their bank (and soon energy retailers and telcos) to send their data to a competitor or niche provider, who could use it to price or create better services.

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The government is considering a recommendation from Malleson’s partner Scott Farrell to follow Britain and “automate” the CDR system so it can make payments and manage services for consenting users.

Budget funding will be used to develop the rules and standards for the CDR for the energy sector this year, and provide for real-time and machine- readable product data, to enable energy data sharing to begin in 2022.

Funding has also been provided to assess and develop a road map for telecommunications as a CDR sector.

Lessons from open banking

“We’ve done a lot of learnings in open banking that are very much transferable to those other sectors,” Senator Hume said.

“We now know how to set the right data standards, how to put the consumer at the centre, establish a way that we can safely and efficiently transfer that data to an accredited third-party provider with all the right privacy and consent protocols in place.

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“We will begin to see those consumer benefits manifest, but also I think it will capture the imagination of digital innovators.

“Obviously, the fintech sector is very excited about the potential for the consumer data right, and particularly when you combine it with the new payments platform.”

Offshore opportunities

Senator Hume said foundation-stone investments by government would create a nurturing environment for fintechs to grow and to provide more competitive offerings.

“Imagine what those innovators can do with the information from your energy provider as well as your telecommunications provider as well as your bank, and how you can bundle product offerings or create entirely new product offerings,” Senator Hume said.

The budget has funded a plan to expand international engagement with Australia’s nascent data portability framework to promote an inter-operable and rules-based approach to international consumer data.

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It is hoped this will provide offshore opportunities for Australian technology companies to scale globally.

The push to expand the CDR is part of a broader plan to lift data capability.

The budget is also providing support for the development of an Australian data strategy by late 2021, with the aim of promoting greater data sharing and asset management.

Geoscience Australia has been provided with $40 million to develop a three-dimensional digital atlas of Australia’s geography, bringing together public data on people, the economy, employment, infrastructure, health, land and the environment into a single national data asset.

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The interim National Data Commissioner, Deborah Anton, will also undertake a $16.5 million pilot program to make government data assets more discoverable.

The program will develop data inventories for 20 per cent of Commonwealth agencies, and shared digital infrastructure and standards for a publicly available catalogue of government data assets

    Most federal government agencies do not have a comprehensive inventory of the data they hold, limiting their ability to understand the value of their data holdings and making it difficult to find data when needed.

    The problem is worse among state agencies, where poor security classification practices mean many agencies have little understanding of the source and pedigree of their legacy information. This has hampered robust data sharing among agencies.

    Tom Burton has held senior editorial and publishing roles with The Mandarin, The Sydney Morning Herald and as Canberra bureau chief for The Australian Financial Review. He has won three Walkley awards. Connect with Tom on Twitter. Email Tom at tom.burton@afr.com

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