{"id":"public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017","name":"Public Sector (Data Sharing) Regulations 2017","slug":"public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017","collection":"regulation","jurisdiction":"sa","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":236826,"registerId":"sa-public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-06","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Public Sector (Data Sharing) Regulations 2017","content":"South Australia\nPublic Sector (Data Sharing) Regulations 2017\nunder the Public Sector (Data Sharing) Act 2016\n\nContents\n1\tShort title\n3\tInterpretation\n4\tDefinition—exempt public sector data\n5\tDefinition—public sector agency\n5A\tTrusted access principles (safe data) (section 7(4))\n6\tPrescribed trusted access principles (section 7(7))\n7\tPrescribed data sharing purposes (section 8(1)(c))\n8\tPrescribed data sharing safeguards (section 12)\n8A\tRelevant entities (section 13)\n9\tRestriction on further use and disclosure of public sector data (section 14(1)(d))\nLegislative history\n\n1—Short title\nThese regulations may be cited as the Public Sector (Data Sharing) Regulations 2017.\n3—Interpretation\nIn these regulations—\nAct means the Public Sector (Data Sharing) Act 2016.\n4—Definition—exempt public sector data\n\t(1)\tFor the purposes of paragraph (a) of the definition of exempt public sector data in section 3(1) of the Act, the following public sector agencies are prescribed:\n\t(a)\tthe Auditor‑General;\n\t(b)\tthe Crown Solicitor;\n\t(c)\tthe Director of Public Prosecutions;\n\t(d)\tthe Ombudsman.\n\t(2)\tFor the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of exempt public sector data in section 3(1) of the Act, the following data is exempt public sector data:\n\t(a)\tdata that would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege;\n\t(b)\tdata obtained in confidential circumstances for the purposes of mediation, conciliation or other dispute resolution process undertaken under an Act or law;\n\t(c)\tdata created by South Australia Police containing information classified by the Commissioner of Police, in accordance with the provisions of any other Act, as criminal intelligence;\n\t(d)\tin relation to proceedings that are being heard, or are to be heard, before a court or tribunal, data—\n\t(i)\tprepared for the purposes of the proceedings (including any transcript of the proceedings); or\n\t(ii)\tobtained in confidential circumstances for the purposes of mediation, conciliation or some other form of dispute resolution; or\n\t(iii)\tthe disclosure of which would be inconsistent with the Crown acting as a model litigant in the proceedings; or\n\t(iv)\tprepared by or on behalf of the court or tribunal (including any order or judgment made or given by the court or tribunal);\n\t(e)\tdata the public disclosure of which would, but for any immunity of the Crown—\n\t(i)\tconstitute contempt of court; or\n\t(ii)\tcontravene any order or direction of a person or body having power to receive evidence on oath; or\n\t(iii)\tinfringe the privilege of Parliament;\n\t(f)\tdata the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to prejudice national security (within the meaning of the National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004 of the Commonwealth).\n5—Definition—public sector agency\nFor the purposes of paragraph (a) of the definition of public sector agency in section 3(1) of the Act, the following are prescribed:\n\t(a)\tthe Independent Commissioner Against Corruption;\n\t(b)\tthe Judicial Conduct Commissioner;\n\t(c)\tthe Office for Public Integrity;\n\t(d)\tall Royal Commissions;\n\t(e)\ta judicial conduct panel under the Judicial Conduct Commissioner Act 2015;\n\t(f)\ta person appointed to conduct a review of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption or the Office for Public Integrity under section 46 of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Act 2012 (as in force immediately before the commencement of section 20 of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2016);\n\t(g)\tthe reviewer within the meaning of Schedule 4 of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Act 2012.\n5A—Trusted access principles (safe data) (section 7(4))\nFor the purposes of section 7(4)(a)(vii) of the Act, the purposes specified in regulation 7(1)(c) are prescribed.\n6—Prescribed trusted access principles (section 7(7))\n\t(1)\tFor the purposes of section 7(7) of the Act—\n\t(a)\tprescribed health information may not be shared or disclosed under section 8 of the Act without the prior approval of the Minister responsible for the administration of the Health Care Act 2008; and\n\t(b)\tinformation disclosed to a public sector agency for the purposes of the SA NT DataLink by a person or body that is not a public sector agency may not be shared or disclosed under section 8 of the Act without the prior approval of the relevant person or body.\n\t(2)\tIn this regulation—\nprescribed health information means information the disclosure of which is prohibited—\n\t(a)\tunder a prescribed provision; or\n\t(b)\tunder the National Health Funding Pool Administration (South Australia) Act 2012,\n(whether or not the prohibition is subject to specified qualifications or exceptions);\nprescribed provision—each of the following is a prescribed provision:\n\t(a)\tsection 18 of the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988;\n\t(b)\tsections 66 and 73 of the Health Care Act 2008;\n\t(c)\tregulation 26 of the Health Care Regulations 2008;\n\t(d)\tsection 216 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law;\n\t(e)\tsections 99 and 100 of the South Australian Public Health Act 2011;\n\t(f)\tsection 39 of the Transplantation and Anatomy Act 1983;\nSA NT DataLink means the SA NT DataLink established and in existence in accordance with the SA NT DATA LINKAGE CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT (commenced on 1 January 2009 and as varied from time to time).\n7—Prescribed data sharing purposes (section 8(1)(c))\n\t(1)\tFor the purposes of section 8(1)(c) of the Act, the following purposes are prescribed:\n\t(a)\tto assist in law enforcement;\n\t(b)\tto assist in emergency planning and response;\n\t(c)\tto include a photograph of a person (being a photograph taken or supplied and held under the Motor Vehicles Act 1959) in a licence, authorisation, accreditation, identity card or other similar document (however described) granted to or issued in respect of the person under, or for the purposes of the administration of, any of the following laws of the State:\n\t(i)\tthe Firearms Act 2015;\n\t(ii)\tthe Harbors and Navigation Act 1993;\n\t(iii)\tthe Passenger Transport Act 1994.\n\t(2)\tIn this regulation—\nemergency planning and response includes—\n\t(a)\tthe prevention or reduction of a threat to the life, health or safety of a person; and\n\t(b)\tthe investigation of a missing person; and\n\t(c)\tthe identification of a disaster victim or deceased person; and\n\t(d)\tthe prevention or reduction of a disruption to essential services or to services usually enjoyed by the community; and\n\t(e)\tthe prevention or reduction of the destruction of, or damage to, any property;\nlaw enforcement includes—\n\t(a)\tthe preservation of the peace; and\n\t(b)\tthe prevention and detection of crime; and\n\t(c)\tcriminal investigations, criminal proceedings or proceedings for the imposition of a penalty.\n8—Prescribed data sharing safeguards (section 12)\nFor the purposes of section 12 of the Act, if data is provided to a data recipient under the Act, the data recipient must ensure that it is clearly indicated on the data that the data was provided under the Act.\n8A—Relevant entities (section 13)\n\t(1)\tFor the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition of relevant entity in section 13(8) of the Act, the following are prescribed as relevant entities:\n\t(a)\tthe Local Government Association of South Australia;\n\t(d)\ta person or body (other than a public sector agency) that provides or has provided an essential service in this State;\n\t(e)\ta person or body (other than a public sector agency) that is or has been engaged by the government to provide services or carry out a function on behalf of the government;\n\t(f)\ta person or body (other than a public sector agency) that has entered into an agreement with a public sector agency to provide a community service (whether the service is provided independently of, or in association with, the public sector agency);\n\t(g)\ta registered higher education provider (within the meaning of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 of the Commonwealth).\n\t(2)\tIn this regulation—\nessential service has the same meaning as in the Essential Services Act 1981.\n9—Restriction on further use and disclosure of public sector data (section 14(1)(d))\nFor the purposes of section 14(1)(d) of the Act, ODA may use public sector data received pursuant to an authorisation under section 8 or 9 of the Act other than for a purpose for which it was provided if—\n\t(a)\tthe proposed use is consistent with the objects of the Act; and\n\t(b)\tODA is satisfied that the circumstances in which the proposed use will occur are consistent with the circumstances that the data provider was (at the time of providing the data) informed would be the circumstances in which any proposed use of the data would occur.\nLegislative history\nNotes\n\t•\tPlease note—References in the legislation to other legislation or instruments or to titles of bodies or offices are not automatically updated as part of the program for the revision and publication of legislation and therefore may be obsolete.\n\t•\tEarlier versions of these regulations (historical versions) are listed at the end of the legislative history.\n\t•\tFor further information relating to the Act and subordinate legislation made under the Act see the Index of South Australian Statutes or www.legislation.sa.gov.au.\nPrincipal regulations and variations\nNew entries appear in bold.\nYear\nNo\nReference\nCommencement\n2017\n75\nGazette 30.5.2017 p1997 \n30.5.2017: r 2\n2017\n316\nGazette 28.11.2017 p4765\n28.11.2017: r 2\n2020\n271\nGazette 24.9.2020 p4659\n24.9.2020: r 2\n2021\n54\nGazette 13.5.2021 p1375\n13.5.2021: r 2\n2024\n15\nGazette 14.3.2024 p449\n14.7.2024: r 2\n2026\n8\nGazette 5.2.2026 p198\n5.2.2026: r 2\nProvisions varied\nNew entries appear in bold.\nEntries that relate to provisions that have been deleted appear in italics.\nProvision\nHow varied\nCommencement\nr 2\nomitted under Legislation Revision and Publication Act 2002\n28.11.2017\nr 5A\ninserted by 271/2020 r 4\n24.9.2020\nr 7\n\n\nr 7(1)\nvaried by 271/2020 r 5\n24.9.2020\nr 8A\ninserted by 316/2017 r 4\n28.11.2017\nr 8A(1)\nvaried by 54/2021 r 4\n13.5.2021\n\namended by 15/2024 r 3\n14.7.2024\n\namended by 8/2026 r 3\n5.2.2026\n\n(b) and (c) deleted by 8/2026 r 3\n5.2.2026\nHistorical versions\n28.11.2017\n\n24.9.2020\n\n13.5.2021\n\n14.7.2024\n\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The regulations' scope has been altered since inception. Key changes recorded in the legislative history include insertion of trusted access principles (r 5A inserted 24.9.2020), variation of prescribed purposes (r 7 varied 24.9.2020), and the addition and subsequent amendments to the list of relevant entities (r 8A inserted 28.11.2017; varied 13.5.2021; amended 14.7.2024 and 5.2.2026). Those amendments expanded and refined who is covered, introduced new approval requirements and adjusted specified purposes and exclusions (see Legislative history entries and the cited regulations)."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple cross‑references to the principal Act and to other statutes (e.g. Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act, Health Care Act, National Security Information Act) increasing interpretation load (r 4(2), r 6).","Layered exemptions and enumerated sensitive categories (legal privilege, court documents, police criminal intelligence, national security) require case‑by‑case legal assessment (r 4(2)).","Approval requirements for certain disclosures (ministerial approval for prescribed health information; third‑party consent for SA NT DataLink material) add administrative steps and discretion (r 6(1)).","Prescribed purposes combine broad policy goals (law enforcement, emergency response) with specific technical uses (inclusion of motor‑vehicle photographs in licences), producing mixed scope (r 7).","Obligation for data recipients to label data as provided under the Act creates an operational compliance burden (r 8).","Definition and expansion of \"relevant entities\" to include non‑government service providers, councils and universities widens coverage and raises contracting and governance questions (r 8A).","Restriction on ODA's further use tied to consistency with provider expectations imposes evidentiary/recordkeeping needs to show informed circumstances (r 9).","Legislative history shows several amendments and insertions over time, meaning stakeholders must track versions and changes (Legislative history; notes to r 5A, r 7, r 8A)."],"plain_english_summary":"These regulations set which agencies and kinds of data are exempt, prescribe which bodies count as public‑sector agencies or relevant entities, specify permitted purposes for sharing, and impose safeguards and limits on reuse. They affect South Australian public sector agencies, designated external service providers and data recipients, who must mark shared data as provided under the Act (r 8) and obtain approvals or withhold sharing for specified health, legal, policing and national‑security data (r 4(2), r 6)."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Scope cannot be assessed as the legislative text was not successfully retrieved. The page returned was an error page from the SA legislation website, not the regulation itself. No comparison between original and current intent is possible."},"complexity_factors":["No actual legislative text was retrievable — the source URL returned a 404 Page Not Found error","Complexity cannot be meaningfully assessed without access to the document's content","Score of 1 reflects the absence of analysable material, not simplicity of the underlying law"],"plain_english_summary":"Likely a South Australian regulation setting rules for how government agencies share data—who can share it, what kinds of data may be disclosed, and the safeguards and penalties that apply. It affects SA residents whose personal information is held by government, plus public servants and third parties receiving government data, and matters because it determines privacy protections and lawful data use."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The regulations appear consistent with the original intent of the parent Act. They operationalise the Act by prescribing specific agencies, data types, purposes, and safeguards as anticipated by the Act's framework. The amendments visible in the legislative history (adding entities to the 'relevant entities' list, inserting the trusted access principles reference) represent incremental operational adjustments rather than scope expansion."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple cross-references to the parent Act (Public Sector (Data Sharing) Act 2016) requiring simultaneous reading","Nested definitions: 'prescribed health information' relies on 'prescribed provision' which lists 6 specific legislative sections across 4 different Acts","Complex conditional logic in regulation 9 requiring two cumulative tests for ODA's secondary use of data","Fragmented structure with definitions scattered across regulations 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8A rather than consolidated","External document incorporation by reference (SA NT DATA LINKAGE CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT) without inclusion of content","Multiple amendment layers visible in legislative history (6 versions since 2017) creating versioning complexity"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this does:**\nThese regulations set the detailed rules for how South Australian government agencies can share data with each other and with certain outside organisations under the Public Sector (Data Sharing) Act 2016.\n\n**Key things it covers:**\n\n*   **What data is off-limits:** It lists specific types of data that cannot be shared, including:\n    *   Data held by the Auditor-General, Crown Solicitor, Director of Public Prosecutions, and Ombudsman\n    *   Legally privileged information (communications between lawyers and clients)\n    *   Confidential mediation or dispute resolution records\n    *   Criminal intelligence from SA Police\n    *   Court and tribunal documents\n    *   Information that could harm national security\n\n*   **Who counts as a 'public sector agency':** Adds several integrity bodies to the definition, including the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, Judicial Conduct Commissioner, Office for Public Integrity, and Royal Commissions.\n\n*   **Special protections for health data:** Health information protected under various health laws cannot be shared without approval from the Health Minister.\n\n*   **Who can receive data (\"relevant entities\"):** Government can share data with:\n    *   The Local Government Association of SA\n    *   Essential service providers (like utilities)\n    *   Private contractors working for government\n    *   Community service providers working with government\n    *   Universities\n\n*   **When data can be shared:** Specific purposes include law enforcement, emergency planning and response, and using driver's licence photos for other licences (like firearms or boating licences).\n\n*   **Safeguards:** Anyone receiving data must label it clearly as having been provided under this scheme.\n\n**Who it affects:**\nAll South Australian public sector agencies, plus private organisations that contract with government or provide essential services. It also affects individuals whose personal information may be shared between these bodies.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis creates a framework for government data sharing that tries to balance efficiency (letting agencies work together) with privacy and legal protections. It ensures sensitive information like legal advice, criminal intelligence, and health records get extra protection."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017","history":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017/history","analysis":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/public-sector-data-sharing-regulations-2017/documents"}}