Purpose
Government data should be open and transparent where possible. As outlined in the DataVic Access Policy Guidelines v2 (‘Open Data Policy’), the Victorian Government’s default position is to make its datasets freely available to the public. To achieve this, datasets that are generated by Victorian Government agencies which are suitable for publication are required to be published on the Victorian Government Data Directory (‘Data Directory’), in formats and under licences that facilitate their reuse.
The State Revenue Office (‘SRO’) is committed to delivering the benefits of open data by proactively making its data freely available to the public where appropriate, having regard to its legislative and administrative obligations. The SRO’s Open Data Strategy (‘Strategy’) sets out the SRO’s plan to support the Open Data Policy and will be reviewed annually to ensure that it is fulfilling that purpose.
Agency Function
The SRO is the Victorian Government’s major revenue collection agency. It is a semi-autonomous service agency that is responsible for administering Victoria’s taxation legislation and collecting a range of taxes, duties and levies, including land tax, payroll tax and land transfer duty.
The SRO is responsible for administering the following initiatives:
- First Home Owner Grant
- Commercial Passenger Vehicle Service Levy
- Wagering and Betting Tax
- Casino Tax
- Windfall Gains Tax
- Commercial Industrial Property Tax
- Growth Area Infrastructure Charge
- Fire Services Property Levy
- Metropolitan Planning Levy
The SRO also administers the Unclaimed Money Act 2008 and assists with the administration of various subsidies and rebates.
Refer to the comprehensive summary of legislation administered by the SRO.
Policy Principles for Data Release
The Strategy is guided by the Open Data Policy’s open data principles.
Principle 1: Government data will be made available unless access is restricted for reasons of privacy, public safety, security and law enforcement, public health, and compliance with the law
The SRO will consider all data it collects or creates for publication and, where it is found to be appropriate for publication, make it available to the greatest extent possible. The SRO will not publish Protected Data, being data, the dissemination of which is limited for reasons of privacy, public safety, security and law enforcement, public health, copyright infringement, legal privilege, contractual obligation, confidentiality, the public interest, or compliance with the law.
Principle 2: Government data will be made available under flexible licences
SRO data that is appropriate for publication will be made openly available under flexible licences to facilitate reuse, with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence being the default.
Principle 3: With limited exceptions, government data will be made available at no or minimal cost
The SRO will make its data available for free, unless the cost is set by law.
Principle 4: Government data will be easy to find and accessible in formats that promote its reuse
The SRO’s data will be easily discoverable through the Data Directory and will be released in accessible formats that promote its reuse.
Principle 5: Government will follow standards and guidelines relating to making datasets available and agency accountability for those datasets
The SRO will make data that is appropriate for publication available in a timely and relevant manner, and is accountable for the release of good quality data in accordance with Whole of Victorian Government (WoVG) standards and guidelines.
Scope of the SRO’s Open Data Program
For the purposes of the Strategy, In-Scope Data is defined as:
- current and historic, raw, unprocessed, and machine-readable data collected, created, used and stored by the SRO,
- data with a protective marking of Unclassified (i.e. public domain), either before or after modification, aggregation and de-identification, and
- able to be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, or similar, licence.
Out-of-Scope Data is defined as:
- data that would be more accurately defined as information, being data that has been processed, analysed, interpreted, organised or, otherwise, has had value and context added, or
- data with a protective marking higher than Unclassified, and which cannot be classified as Unclassified after reasonable attempts at modification, aggregation and de-identification, or
- data after reasonable attempts at modification, aggregation and de-identification if released could cause harm or damage to Victorian government operations, organisations or individuals, or
- data that is not collected or created by the SRO in the course of exercising its agency functions.
Legislative and Administrative Framework
The use and disclosure of information held by the SRO is subject to the secrecy provisions in the laws administered by the SRO. These provisions prohibit the disclosure or secondary disclosure of information obtained under or in accordance with a revenue law except for permitted purposes or to authorised recipients.
A person’s privacy is also protected under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006, and personal information must be collected, managed, used and disclosed in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. The SRO’s privacy policy is published on the website.
However, information of a general nature may be disclosed, and the SRO proactively releases data relating to its revenue administration functions.
In accordance with our obligations under Part II of the Freedom of Information Act 1984, the SRO also publishes a statement providing a snapshot of the SRO’s functions and resources, including details as to how members of the public may access those documents.
Governance and Accountability Framework
Operational Governance
The SRO’s Information Management Governance Committee (IMGC) will be responsible for implementing and administering the Strategy. The IMGC will be responsible for:
- providing leadership and fostering an organisational culture that supports open data,
- building organisational capability in identifying, developing, releasing and managing datasets,
- monitoring and reporting the SRO’s progress towards reaching goals in the Strategy,
- determining whether to publish datasets recommended for publication by asset custodians, and
- maintaining the Strategy.
On a day-to-day basis, responsibility for identifying, assessing and managing the SRO’s datasets will sit with the relevant asset custodian.
Compliance
The Strategy complies with the:
- Freedom of Information Act 1982
- Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014
- DataVic Access Policy Guidelines (v2)
- DataVic Access Policy Dataset Publishing Manual – January 2024
- DataVic Access Policy Suggest a Dataset Manual – January 2024
- Victorian Government Information Management Principles
- Victorian Protective Data Security Standards
- Victorian Government Intellectual Property Policy
- SRO Information Security Classification System (based on 2011 Australian Government Security Classification System)
- SRO Information Management Strategy 2024-2027
- SRO Information Privacy Policy
- SRO Information Management Governance Committee – Terms of Reference
- Secrecy provisions in the Acts administered by the Commissioner of State Revenue.
The SRO's Data
To conduct its functions, the SRO collects, creates, uses, stores, manages and discloses a range of data assets. The types of information and data managed by the SRO is summarised in the SRO’s Information Asset Register.
The SRO’s approach is to review and catalogue all the datasets it manages. Through this process it will prioritise for release high-value datasets that are considered to be of greatest value to the public, having either the potential for valuable reuse or being of interest to the Victorian community. A dataset will be considered ‘high value’ if it has one or more of the following characteristics:
- it is central to the SRO’s functions,
- it is requested through the Data Directory,
- it has previously/regularly been provided under the Freedom of Information Act 1982,
- it supports a major reporting process of the SRO (e.g. annual report data),
- it is spatial data,
- it is transport data,
- it is administrative data,
- it is financial data,
- it facilitates the development of new products or services by users of the data,
- it captures the public interest or adds to the public debate, or
- it relates to customer feedback or the customer experience.
Achievements, Actions and Goals
The SRO is committed to the Open Data Strategy and has developed goals and strategies to achieve this outcome.
Since 2020 the SRO has identified and released 90 datasets to DataVic. The released datasets are updated annually.
On an ongoing basis, the SRO continues to:
- review its information assets to identify datasets that are appropriate for publication,
- appoint asset custodians to the identified information assets,
- maintain a centrally monitored Information Asset Register,
- review and improve metadata, in particular data descriptions, of published SRO datasets, and continue
- to communicate the Strategy internally to embed an agency-wide culture that accepts and sees the value in open data.
Further to the actions described above, the SRO has identified the following key long-term goals for its open data program:
| Goal | Strategies/actions |
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1. Raise the Open Data profile within SRO and community |
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2. Promote transparency of the Open Data program |
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3. Embed identification and release of datasets in SRO processes |
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4. Improve the quality and timeliness of data released |
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Dataset Identification and Publication Process
Assessment
Asset custodians will identify and record new and existing datasets in the SRO Information Asset Register. Asset custodians will then assess the suitability of an identified dataset for public release and make a recommendation to the IMGC. This assessment will be based on legislative requirements, applicable information management policies and procedures, the protective marking of the asset from which the dataset is extracted, and the policy principles for data release described at (3.) of the Strategy. The IMGC will decide whether to publish the dataset.
Modification, Aggregation and De-Identification
Where a marking is applied to an identified dataset that prevents it from being classified as Unclassified, reasonable attempts will be made through modification, aggregation and de-identification techniques to make the dataset suitable for public release.
Publication
If a release is approved, the dataset will be published to a permanent URL on the SRO’s website in an open and machine-readable file format such as CSV or XML. A data quality statement and metadata will be prepared for the dataset by the relevant asset custodian.
The completed metadata template and data quality statement will then be provided to DataVic to link the published dataset to the Data Directory. The default release licence will be Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0).
Maintenance of Published Datasets
The SRO manages all its information assets throughout their lifecycle. After an SRO dataset is published, the relevant asset custodian will be responsible for maintaining the currency and, where necessary, improving the accuracy, accessibility or usability of the dataset. The frequency of updates to datasets will vary depending on the dataset and will be stated in the metadata template accompanying the dataset.
Feedback and Data Publication Requests
The SRO encourages enquiries and feedback about the usefulness of its published datasets and areas for improvement. It also encourages data users to request datasets using the ‘suggest a dataset’ function on the Victorian Government Data Directory. A link to the ‘suggest a dataset’ function is also available on the contact page of the SRO’s website. The SRO will respond to data publication requests and feedback regarding its data, in a timely manner.
Published SRO Datasets on the Data Directory
Statistical information is available on the SRO website. A list of published SRO Datasets is also available on the DataVic website.
Definitions
Asset custodian
A designated SRO staff member with assigned responsibilities for an information asset to ensure that the information contained in the asset is managed appropriately over its lifecycle, in accordance with relevant rules and processes.[1] An asset custodian is appointed for each of the information assets in the SRO’s Information Asset Register.
Data
Datasets and databases owned and held by Victorian Government and public bodies and stored in formats including hardcopy, electronic, audio, video, image, graphical, cartographic, physical sample, textual, geospatial or numerical form.[2]
De-identified
In relation to personal information, means personal information that no longer relates to an identifiable individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified.[3]
Information asset
An identifiable collection of data stored in any manner and recognised as having a value for the purpose of enabling an agency to perform its business functions, thereby satisfying a recognised agency requirement.[4]
Personal information
Means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion, but does not include information of a kind to which the Health Records Act 2001 applies.[5]
