Data Management News Western Australia

WA Government allocates $8M to upgrade data linkage capabilities

Eliza Sayon May 31, 2022

2 min read

The WA Government is allocating $8 million from its Digital Capability Fund to advance the state’s data linkage capabilities over the next four years, delivering important data linkage reforms and renewed capabilities across the public sector.

According to Innovation and ICT Minister Stephen Dawson, the Office of Digital Government will be delivering on the Digital Strategy by building analytics capabilities that will address the state’s most pressing complex social, health, environmental and economic issues.

“The WA Government is committed to ensuring data we have at our disposal is used to deliver the best possible outcomes for services, policy and strategy for Western Australians,” Minister Dawson said.

“Improved linkage capabilities will enable decisions to be better informed by data and will aid researchers in their efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of all Western Australians.”

The funding allocation is expected to provide ten additional roles to the Office of Digital Government to support the building, operating, governing and usage of a central data asset, as well as new and essential technical equipment and services to ensure data security.

The new reforms and renewed capabilities provide the necessary infrastructure to tackle the state’s most complex social, health, environmental and economic issues in a safe and secure way through the streamlining of government services and the use of relevant data for policy and operational decisions.

“The new data linkage reforms will allow for better interrogation of information across multiple datasets while implementing industry-leading cyber security measures,” WA’s Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken AC said.

“The State Government collects data in the course of daily operations, and it’s important that we not only protect that information but utilise it in an effective manner.”

The WA Government also plans to improve data linkage capabilities to support health and medical researchers in conducting ethically-approved research and evaluation to improve the health and wellbeing of all Western Australians.

To support these reforms, the Office of Digital Government, together with the Department of Health, will facilitate the secure linkage of data in a safe, privacy-preserving environment.

The reforms were made in response to the recommendations made by Professor Klinken, who led a data linkage review with the research, not-for-profit and public sectors.

“Through these reforms, the State Government will be enabled to make more informed policy and strategy decisions that will benefit the whole community,” he said.

The initiative also supports the delivery of the Digital Strategy for the WA Government 2021-2025 and recommendations from the Sustainable Health Review 2019, by building the State Government’s data and analytics capabilities to support work on critical cross-portfolio issues.

Source: WA Government Media Release

Eliza Sayon

Website | + posts

Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.