"Treat Data Like Relatives": CASWA at the National Data Policy Partnership
CASWA represented Western Australia in Canberra for Meeting Three of the National Data Policy Partnership — the body advancing Priority Reform Four of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Insights
"Treat data like relatives."
That was a key reflection from Meeting Three of the National Data Policy Partnership, held in Canberra in May, where CASWA represented Western Australia.
The Data Policy Partnership is where the Coalition of Peaks and Commonwealth, State and Territory governments work together on the question that sits underneath Priority Reform Four of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap: how data — who collects it, who controls it, who uses it, and for whose benefit — can serve Aboriginal self-determination.
The agenda spanned Community Data Projects, performance measurement, work towards a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Entity, and the statutory review of the Commonwealth's data sharing legislation.
For Western Australia, this work matters directly. The emerging WA Aboriginal Data Sovereignty Alliance, the WA Government's Closing the Gap 2026–2028 Implementation Plan, the Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024 (WA) and CASWA's joint collaboration with the WA Office of Digital Government all sit alongside what is being shaped at the national table. Decisions made in Canberra determine how much room there is to move here.
CASWA thanks the Coalition of Peaks, the Data Policy Partnership co-chairs Sharif Deen and Phillip Gould and the secretariat, and the ACCO sector colleagues who do this work alongside us.
The decisions made in rooms like this one will shape how Aboriginal data sovereignty is operationalised across this country for years to come.