Govt appoints interim Data Standards body chair

The federal government has appointed Andrew Stevens as the Interim Chair of the Data Standards Body for the planned Consumer Data Right.

Stevens is the former managing director of IBM Australia, the Chairman of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and a Director of accounting software company MYOB, property developer Stockland, Radio Rentals parent Thorn Group and the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

In his new role, Stevens will help ensure the data standards for the Consumer Data Right will maximise benefit for consumers and have been developed in consultation with industry and privacy groups.

The Data Standards Body, which has been established within the CSIRO's Data61 division, will be responsible for setting technical standards for the Consumer Data Right. The chair will also be responsible for ensuring the body has appropriate governance, process and stakeholder engagement processes in place.

The Right will provide Australian consumers with improved access to and control over their own data held by companies and organisations. This will include empowering consumers to direct organisations to securely transfer this data to a trusted third party.

It will first be implemented in the banking sector to enable open banking, and will then be expanded to the energy and telecoms sector before being rolled out out economy-wide on a sector-by-sector basis.

This is expected to enable improved competition and data-driven innovation, allow consumers to take advantage of better price comparison services taking into account their actual usage and demands and support the development of more convenient, customised products and services.

The government has provided $45 million in funding over four years to implement the new Right, as well as the regulatory and enforcement framework for the regime.

While the Right has yet to be introduced into parliament, the government aims to commence a phased implementation of the Right into the banking sector starting in July next year.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/md3d

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