A level of resignation accompanies talk of the data sharing
legislation to be introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament later
this year. For some Commonwealth agency staff, it's the result
of exposure to the day-to-day reality of agency data management.
While the days of manila files and giant compactuses have receded
firmly from view, they have been replaced by electronic systems
which, in some cases, are haphazardly organised and have limited
complex search capabilities. The result is that it can be very time
consuming (and sometimes impossible) to locate data. Where data is
found, agency staff are sometimes unsure how it came to be where it
is, where it came from, and to whom it really belongs.
