Capability 2.3.1.1
Standards & Provenance
Definition
Development and enforcement by government or the private sector of interoperable data and metadata standards, quality frameworks and provenance systems that ensure datasets are accurate, traceable and validated throughout their lifecycle.
Examples
- The Australian Government Data Catalogue
- ABS Data Quality Framework
- Australian Government Architecture (AGA)
- ABS Data Quality Framework (DQF)
- Data Catalogue Vocabulary – Application Profile for Australia (DCAT-AP-AU).
Indicators
- Percentage of Commonwealth and state datasets registered in the Australian Government Data Catalogue with complete metadata fields
- Adoption rate of ABS Data Quality Framework across agencies
- Existence and currency of agency-specific data standards aligned with AGA
National AI Plan
PLAN COMMITMENT
Limited commitment
Recognises the value of Australian datasets, their importance to developing and training AI models that are locally relevant, and commits to exploring opportunities and pilot use cases to unlock high value datasets, including to build on existing programs of work to improve APS data and data maturity, consistent data standards and metadata, build trusted and secure approaches to data sharing, and identify high value, non-sensitive datasets (Action 2). Refers to verification standards for earth observation data (Action 6), includes updates to privacy laws as part of AI harms mitigation (Action 7), and responsible AI practices in the APS, including documentation, metadata recording and transparency measures (Action 8), but does not include details on implementation or funding, therefore, commitment is assessed to be limited. Limited commitment by government in the plan represents a missed opportunity. More should be done build agency and leverage to offset capability gaps elsewhere in the ecosystem.
Stocktake
United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). United Nations Statistics Division. Accessed October 2025. https://ggim.un.org/
International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). Principality of Monaco. Accessed October 2025. https://www.iho.int/en/
Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). Australian Government / Department of Education. Accessed October 2025. https://www.ardc.edu.au/
National Geospatial Data. Geoscience Australia. Accessed October 2025. https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information
Australian Geoscience Data Cube (AGDC). Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). Accessed October 2025. https://www.opendatacube.org/
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 1 Second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Version 1.0. Geoscience Australia (ELVIS – Elevation Information System). Accessed October 2025. https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/
The Bureau of Meteorology Data Catalogue metadata framework for data discovery, verification and provenance. Bureau of Meteorology. Accessed 2026_. _https://www.bom.gov.au/metadata/catalogue/about.shtml
Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS). CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology. Accessed October 2025. https://research.csiro.au/access/
Is the Stocktake missing evidence?
Share additional information for potential future Assessments