Roundtable: Unlocking Value in Integrated Gov Data
I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the lands we are meeting on today.
Apologies in advance that parliament is sitting today. I’m afraid that parliamentary pairs are as scarce as a dataset with no missing values and perfect documentation.
And yes, it’s ironic that we are discussing how to connect datasets across governments when I cannot even pop down the hill to connect physically.
My thanks to Philip Clarke and the Academy of Social Sciences for organising this roundtable and to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and David Gruen for their leadership in integrated government data. I’m sure this roundtable will help by bringing together researchers and policymakers to accelerate our ability to share and use data responsibly.
Let’s start with the heavyweights. As you probably just heard from Dr Gruen, the Australian Bureau of Statistics hosts 2 of the country’s largest integrated data assets: the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) and the Person‑Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA).
BLADE combines around 29 datasets – including surveys of business characteristics, business income and tax records, trade and intellectual property data, insolvency information and employment conditions – and spans the period from 2001 to the present.
PLIDA integrates about 30 datasets from 2006 onwards, linking Census data to tax returns, social security payments, migration records, and information on health, education and disability.
Both assets are longitudinal and expand as new datasets are added for emerging policy questions. By providing a single source of de‑identified unit‑record data on businesses and people, these assets enable analysts to study how firms perform over time and how individuals’ characteristics, service use and outcomes interrelate (Gruen 2024).
Now, let’s me turn to discuss how integrated data is boosting productivity, drawing on examples from the federal government, state government and private sector.
Using BLADE, the Treasury assembled a firm‑level panel by linking tax, business and employment records to explore why Australia’s productivity growth had slowed. This integration allowed researchers to compare Australian companies with global leaders and revealed that the productivity gap has widened (Andrews et al. 2022). Business entry and exit rates have fallen and market concentration has increased (Treasury 2023). Together these factors explain a significant part of the productivity slowdown.
Analysis using the BLADE dataset also underpinned the merger reforms that passed parliament passed last year. For the first time, policymakers could see how many mergers were taking place in Australia each year – and that most were not being scrutinised by the competition watchdog.
Next, let’s look at an example from health. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Health Data Hub links hospital, pharmaceutical and mortality records. It shows that health service expenditure averages $1,700 per person per year but rises to $24,000 in the last year of life. Overall, 8 per cent of lifetime health costs are incurred in our final year. Health costs are highest for people dying of cancer, and hospital admissions are the main driver (AIHW 2024).
These patterns allow policymakers to target palliative and preventive care: community‑based teams can be deployed earlier to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and screening programs can focus on regions with high rates of chronic disease. All of this work relies on de‑identified datasets, strict access controls and privacy safeguards to maintain public trust.
Data integration is happening at a state level too. NSW Health has replaced half a dozen separate rostering systems with a single digital platform, HealthRoster. The system now schedules about 183,000 staff across 23 local health districts and helps plan shifts more equitably and efficiently (eHealth NSW 2024). Implementation required common rules, careful data migration and training.
Before HealthRoster, managers used spreadsheets and whiteboards, making it hard to calculate overtime, manage fatigue and plan across facilities. The digital system provides real‑time visibility into shifts, alerts for industrial compliance and mobile access for staff. Implementation was not perfect, but according to NSW Health, HealthRoster has improved workforce planning and allowed more equitable rostering that means managers can better support the health and wellbeing of staff.
Effective use of data is making corporations more productive too. Parcel delivery company UPS has a system known as ORION that continuously recalculates routes for drivers, who make a staggering 120 to 175 stops a day. ORION integrates package destinations, traffic and road restrictions – building a digital twin of the delivery network and recalculating routes throughout the day to respond to road closures or new pickups.
Over its first decade of implementation, the system saved about 160 million km of driving and 38 million litres of fuel annually (Williamson 2022). The savings extend beyond fuel to reduced wear and emissions, and the company invested in training so drivers would trust the algorithm.
The final example comes from Australia’s flag carrier. Qantas’s FlightPulse app gives pilots personalised fuel and safety data. In its first year it saved nearly 2 million kilograms of fuel and avoided nearly 6 million kilograms of carbon emissions. More than 2,700 pilots now use it (Qantas 2023). The app uses data from aircraft sensors, flight‑planning systems and weather services to build a profile for each flight. After landing, pilots can see how their fuel burn compares to optimal models and get suggestions.
Data integration is not merely a government exercise. Logistics companies and airlines optimise routes and flight operations because they can analyse millions of data points. Governments can learn from these innovations, but they must also invest in the skills and systems necessary to interpret complex datasets and build governance frameworks that embed privacy and ethical considerations from the start.
These cases suggest 4 principles for building high‑impact data programs.
First, integrated data assets can turbocharge evidence‑based policy. By linking existing administrative and survey data, assets such as BLADE and PLIDA dramatically reduce the cost and time of evaluating policy interventions. They make it feasible to analyse randomised trials without mounting special surveys, thereby accelerating rigorous evaluation.
Second, leadership and collaboration matter. Enduring data assets need champions who will persevere through technical hurdles. Projects must start small, demonstrate value and then scale up, sharing insights with affected communities to build their social license.
Third, data integration must earn and keep public trust. Privacy‑preserving linkage techniques, and transparency about how data are used help maintain a social licence and protect individual rights.
Fourth, people and capabilities are as important as infrastructure. Recruiting effective data scientists, and nurturing their development through initiatives such as the APS Data Profession, is essential.
When these conditions are met, integrated data assets generate evidence that can support regulatory reforms, improve service delivery and drive innovation across public and private sectors.
Finally, thank you to all roundtable participants for your contributions. Conversations like these play a vital role in strengthening Australia’s data integration capability and our collective understanding of how to harness data for the public good.
Andrews D, Hambur J, Hansell D and Wheeler A (2022) Reaching for the stars: Australian firms and the global productivity frontier Treasury Working Paper 2022-01, Department of the Treasury, Canberra.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022) The last year of life: patterns in health service use and expenditure. AIHW, Australian Government, Canberra.
eHealth NSW (2024) HealthRoster eHealth New South Wales (NSW government), Sydney.
GE Aerospace (2025) FlightPulse: leveraging Qantas pilots’ vast experience. GE Aerospace customer story.
Gruen D (2024) Data linkage and integration to improve the evidence base for public policy: lessons from Australia Speech delivered 26 June 2024, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.
Qantas (2023) Qantas Group Climate Action Plan Qantas Airways Limited, Sydney.
Roundtrip.ai (2023) ORION: How route optimisation keeps UPS drivers on time Roundtrip.ai website.
Williamson Z (2022) UPS saving millions at the pump, emphasizes importance of planning ahead 3 News Now, Omaha.
Day I, Duretto Z, Hartigan P and Hambur J (2022) Competition in Australia and its impact on productivity growth. Treasury Round Up, Department of the Treasury, Canberra.
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/andrew-leigh-2025/speeches/address-unlocking-value-better-use-integrated-government-data