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This publication has been compiled by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

© State of Queensland, 2014.

The Queensland Government supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of its information. The copyright in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY) licence.

Under this licence you are free, without having to seek our permission, to use thispublication in accordance with the licence terms.

You must keep intact the copyright notice and attribute the State of Queensland as the source of the publication.

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The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The Queensland Government shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

Contents

Executive summary

Strategic overview

Data

Governance

Future program

Appendix A – Agriculture, fisheries and forestry forward dataset release schedule

Appendix B – Published open datasets

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Executive summary

Since the release of the DAFF’s first open data strategy in May 2013, the DAFF portfolio has published 95 datasets and nearly 350 resources on data.qld.gov.au.

Over the next three years wewill continue to assess ouragricultural datasets for suitability to release, with a particular focus on scientific and research collections. In addition to publishing a range of corporate data, the portfolio will seek to identify and publish customer experience data to help the public and our industries to assessour performance.

This refreshing of the strategy now covers all active bodies that make up the Minister of Agricultural, Fisheries and Forestry’s portfolio.Collectively our work is aimed at doubling the value of Queensland’s agricultural production by 2040.

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

The Department’s purpose is to facilitate the economic growth and resilience of agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries. Our efforts are focused on:

  • increasing resource availability
  • improving productivity across the supply chain
  • increasing market access
  • minimising production costs.

The department advocates and represents industry needs across government to ensure they are reflected in policy, infrastructure and regional planning and investment decisions. The services aligned to this effort are based on information gathered in order to better:

  • translate priorities into agreed strategies, regulatory reforms and actions
  • develop and deliver industry and region specific action plans
  • maximise the return from sales of logs from native forests and quarries on state-owned land
  • balance fishing economic returns and recreational demand with the health of fish stocks and habitats
  • deliver research, development and extension that lifts productivity
  • improve biosecurity.

Statutory Bodies

The portfolio currently has five statutory bodies.

  • Australian Agricultural College Corporation (AACC) will become the Queensland Agricultural Training Colleges (QTAC) from 1 July 2014
  • QRAA
  • Darling Downs-Moreton Rabbit Board (DDMRB)
  • Safe Food Queensland

The first four bodies have adopted the general principles of the department’s strategy and are coordinating their activities and release schedules through the DAFF Open Data project.

Safe Food Production Queensland (SFPQ) has developed its own Open Data Strategy and release schedule. SFPQ works closely with the department to ensure the success of its strategy.

QATC has been established due to a change in governance arrangements for the AACC in 2014. New legislation was assented to in February 2014 and is expected to come into effect on 1 July 2014. The renamed Queensland Agricultural Training Colleges (QATC) will manage the brands of Longreach Pastoral College, Emerald Agricultural College and Rural Training Queensland (the industry training arm). QATC purpose remains to provide high quality training and assessment services to the agricultural industries in Queensland.

QRAAis a specialist administrator of government financial assistance programs including loans, grants, rebates and subsidies. Its objectives include supporting the State’s economy by providing assistance to primary producers, small businesses and other elements of the State’s economy and fostering the development of more productive and sustainable rural and regional areas.

DDMRB maintains the 555 km of Rabbit-proof fence, which runs from Mt Gipps (near Rathdowney) to Goombi (between Chinchilla and Miles), where it joins up with the Wild Dog Barrier Fence, in rabbit-proof condition and monitors compliance with the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002. DDMRB also provides technical and other advice to landholders in its operational areas to assist with rabbit eradication.

Strategic overview

The portfolio holds a variety of data about agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries and related regulatory activities in Queensland. Data is collected continuously to support service delivery and achieving the overarching strategic goal of doubling the value of Queensland’s production by 2040.

The portfolio has adopted the following Open Data goals:

  • increase the quantity ofopen data
  • 100% of published data conforms to quality and protection standards
  • the availability and promotion of open data supports the active discovery of new business solutions and ideas

This strategy is focused on the release of raw data. Updates to CKAN2 and the whole of government commitment to the Queensland globe improve visual access to the datasets and further expands the potential audience. Where suitable, data with spatial characteristics will be formatted appropriately for access through Google earth’s plug in Queensland globe.

Our commitment

The department and each of the statutory bodieshas committed to embedding the principles of the Queensland Government Open Data initiative within their ongoing business activities. Our maturity is expected to grow and expand as portfolio agencies continue to pursue these open data goals and work to become ‘share first’ organisations.

We understand the potential benefits to government, industry and the community available through the public release of government data. Each agency will actively monitor and engage with data users to better understand what they need.

The information managed by the portfolio is already used by the public, industry, researchers and other government agencies in various formats such as reports, tables, online applications and maps. The raw datathat supports these publications may be of value to new customers currently unknown to the department or existing customers seeking to develop new products or solutions to problems broader than the department’s focus.

Data

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

The department gathers industry intelligence to inform policy direction and regulatory reform, scientific data through Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) partnerships that lead to innovation and monitoring data that informs management practices and service delivery.The type of data held by DAFF includes:

  • agricultural production in Queensland
  • development approvals
  • regulatory approvals e.g.licensing, permits, brands
  • drought
  • timber and quarry production in Queensland
  • commercial and recreational fishing catch and effort
  • the shark control program
  • plant and animal pests
  • animal ethics
  • laboratories and vaccines
  • research undertaken by the department
  • customer and stakeholder engagement

The department contributes geospatial data to the Queensland Government Information Service (QGIS) relevant to land use, pest management and other regulated activities. QGIS is available through a link at the Open Data portal.

Statutory Bodies

QTAC (formerly AACC) gathers information and intelligence that informs its management practices including compliance and regulations. Data held includes:

  • training courses and outcomes
  • customer and employersatisfaction
  • facilities
  • livestock and crop production operations
  • animal ethics
  • corporateand administrative data.

QRAA gathers information and intelligence that informs its management practices and service delivery including data related to administration of:

  • Primary Industry Productivity Enhancement Scheme (PIPES) loans,
  • other government financial assistance programs and grants and
  • additional programs and services delivered to local, state and territory governments.
  • customer surveys
  • corporateand administrative data.

DDMRBcollects data that informs its rabbit compliance activities and management practices. DDMRB proposes to continually update data related to:

  • rabbit compliance activities including activities associated with both known infestations and new sightings.

Data management and release

In line with our goal to release data that conforms 100% to data quality and protection standards, the department considers a number of factors before nominating datasets suitable for publishing through the Open Data portal.

In relation to personal privacy, the department is guided by the privacy principles in Queensland’s Information Privacy Act 2009 which supports the delivery of government services while preventing the misuse of personal information. Some of the datasets have been cleansed of identifiable information while some very small datasets were deemed not suitable for publishing. We will aim to avoid publishing data that allows inadvertent or indirect disclosure of personal information in breach of the legislation.

Ownership of the data has also been considered in determining the data that can be released. Some data is generated through commercial-in-confidence contracts with external partners, while in other cases, the portfolio agencies purchases access to data from other providers. These datasets will only be released with the permission of the other parties.

We recognise that while free and open data is our preferred approach it is not always possible for a range of reasons. Each dataset has been assessed prior to making a decision on whether to apply a Creative Commons licence to ensure there is no infringement of intellectual property rights. In some instances a limited licence (non-commercial or no derivatives) has been applied to allow public access while protecting the rights of third parties.

The priority for the release of data via Open Data is:

  • publicly available data that is already published in other formats such as reports, online and through web interfaces
  • externally reported data
  • data not currently published but potentially suitable for release after full assessment against protection standards or with the permission of joint owners
  • corporate information in accordance with the Release of Corporate Information Guidelines developed by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC).

All material currently published to the internet sites is in accordance with the internal approval processes established by each portfolio agency. Open data will be published either on the same page as the information it supports or, if related to particular publications, linked to the government publications portal.

Additional datasets identified for possible release and indicative timeframesin Appendix A. The list of the released datasets can be found in Appendix B.

Governance

To ensure the embedding of the Open Data Strategy across the department, an Open Data Project team was established with oversight by the DAFF Renewal Committee. This Committee consists of members of the DAFF Board of Management representing its four service areas: Agriculture and Forestry; Agri-Science Queensland; Biosecurity Queensland; and Fisheries Queensland. Ongoing approval of datasets for release will be managed by the ICT Strategy and Investment Committee.

Each of the statutory bodies under this strategy has appropriate governance in place to provide oversight of the implementation of the Open Data strategy. This includes ensuring timely release of datasets, undertaking industry and community engagement in relation to available datasets and continuing to drive the future program of Open Data in their organisation.

This approach will see the portfolio continue to proactively release data captured and collected to reach the widest audience possible. Open access to this information will assist in achieving the department’s goals and improve its services by encouraging collaboration to generate new ideas, technologies and practices.

Future program

The agriculture, fisheries and forestry portfolio agencies are committed to releasing more data for the benefit of our clients and the community. The portfolio will continue to improve the quality of the data and expand its maturity as a ‘share first’ network of organisations as resources permit.

A key priority for the department is to widen access to science and research data.

Currently published reports are available through our research archive eRA. Research reports and publications do not generally include the full datasets on which the work is based. We aim to extend open access to a much wider range of our research and development (R&D)datasets. While some non R&D science related surveillance and monitoring activities data is currently available through open data, there may be further potential.We will pay particularattention to testing for sensitivities, to ensure we comply with the protection standard and avoid releasing data that would undermine market security. In some cases open access may not be possible.

Generally R&D involves co-funding, we have, therefore, commenced discussions with these stakeholders to build a share commitment to opening the data to exploit its potential and to explore and manage possible unintended consequences of data release. Further opportunities to highlight and build demand, such as the 2104 Science Open Data Showcase, will be developed.

Widening access will help gain best value from investment, encouraging the reuse of data, and improving knowledge exchange, innovation and economic growth.

A stocktake of departmental information assets and systems is planned for early 2014-15. Profiling of open data during this period should help to identify datasets that should be reconsidered or released.

Moving forward, attention across the portfolio is being placed on embedding systems and work processes to ensure existing open datasets are updated and improved as needed. To enable quick access, data resources have been released as soon as they have been made available. This has resulted in a large number of single datasets and resources. As agreed government data standards are refined and user feedback is received it is possible that the current grouping of datasets and resources may change.

Where possible, the portfolio will incorporate into public access web enabled systems, the capability to access and download data in open format, providing access to the most current data available.

Appendix A –Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry forward datasets release schedule

Datasets to be released and release timeline.

NB: Dataset or resource names and descriptions may vary to thoseavailable through the Open Data Portal.

Dataset name / Description / Target date of publishing / Frequency of update / Open Licence / QLD Globe
Reef plan / Data on activities undertaken by the department related to the Reef Plan– based on reporting to EHP / December 2014 / Annual / Yes / No
Boat and Fisheries Patrol / Data on fisheries compliance and education activities by QBFP / December 2014 / Annual / Yes / No
Animal Welfare / Data on reported animal welfare concerns / June 2015 / Annual / Yes / No
Fire Ant Program database / Information on community engagement activities and summary of operational activities / December 2014 / Quarterly / Yes / No
Bee keeping / Data relating to the keeping of bees and bee hives / June 2015 / Annual / Yes / TBA
Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals / Data relating to chemicals, approved uses and licenced restriction levels / June 2015 / Annual / Yes / No
Veterinary register / Data on registration of Qld veterinarians / December 2014 / Annual / Yes / Yes
Research project data / Data from recently published research and other research activities undertaken by the department / Ongoing as identified / N/A / TBA / TBA
Research funding / Data regarding the types of agricultural research that the government invests in based on current projects / October 2014 / Annual / Yes / TBA
Agri-science and agriculture historic photo collection / Catalogue and digital images of agricultural research and development and extension activities since the 1940’s / December 2015 / TBA / Yes / No
Extension activities / Data on extension activities undertaken by the department / June 2015 / Annual / Yes / TBA
Grants funding (DAFF) / Data relating to DAFF government grants and recipients / September 2014 / Annual / Yes / TBA
Grants funding (QRAA) / Data relating to grants under QRAA administered programs / December 2014 / Annual / Yes / TBA
Customer experience surveys and feedback (DAFF) / Survey and other data collected from customers experience with DAFF services and regulatory activities / Commencing June 2014 / Nil / Yes / No
Customer experience surveys and feedback (QRAA) / Survey and other data collected from customers experience with QRAA services / December 2014 / Annual / Yes / No
Workforce Statistics
(DAFF) / DAFF human resource related data / In conjunction with DPC / TBA / TBA
Workforce Statistics
(QATC) / QATC human resource related data / In conjunction with DPC / TBA / TBA
Workforce Statistic (QRAA) / QRAA human resource related data / In conjunction with DPC / TBA / TBA
Facilities and asset registers / The publication of the remaining datasets related to DAFF specific business assets / December 2014 / As needed / Yes / No
Corporate Services / Other Corporate Services information (not identified above) for DAFF and other portfolio bodies published / In accordance with whole-of-government directions issued by DPC / TBA / TBA

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Appendix B – Datasets released

NB: Dataset name and summarydescription are accurate at the time of review but may vary to those presentedon the Open Data Portal.

Dataset name / Description / Date Published or last updated / Frequency of update / QLD Globe / No. of Resources
Australian Agricultural College Corporation (AACC) Asset Survey 2013—Maintenance / Results of survey of assets across the AACC sites-Maintenance priorities. / 13/06/2014 / Annually / No / 1
AACC Learner Survey 2013 / Learner surveys collected for the 2013 calendar year from students across all AACC sites. / 13/06/2014 / Annually / No / 1