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Vic Govt opts for machine-readable data by default

Victorian Government agencies will now be required to produce almost all data in a machine-readable format by default.
Written by Josh Taylor, Contributor

The Victorian Government will be able to begin releasing more of its data, by requiring agencies to produce all their data in a machine-readable format, unless there are privacy concerns.

Under a new data access policy that was unveiled by the government, from November this year, data collected by government agencies in Victoria will be made available to the public ,unless access needs to be limited for privacy, public safety, security, health or compliance reasons, the state government announced today.

The data will be made available under flexible licences, at limited or no cost, and will be produced in a machine-readable format to make the data easy to find and accessible through the government's data website.

Victorian Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips said that data was one of the state's most-important assets.

"Each year, the Victorian Coalition Government invests millions of dollars in producing and acquiring high-quality data about our state", he said. "Giving recurrent and reliable access to this data is a long overdue stimulus that Victorian businesses and the community will be able to finally harness in developing innovative applications that create new services or improve existing ones."He said that it was hoped that, with the release of government data, it would stimulate innovation, new technologies, services and jobs in the state.

"Under the Victorian Coalition Government's DataVic Access and IP Policies, it will be significantly easier to identify Victorian Government data and to access it, in most cases, at no cost," Rich-Phillips said.

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