A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

Chapter 5 – Results of Partnership Case Studies at State Government Level
critical for fostering a data sharing environment. Without an equitable policy framework
for the pricing and access of spatial information, it is extremely difficult to encourage the
sharing of information. The State Government of Tasmania, through its partnerships
policy, had a significant influence in bringing local government to the negotiating table.
Each of the partnership case studies has reached varying stages of maturity in the
collaboration process. The Victorian PIP and the Tasmanian LIST partnerships have been
the most comprehensive in their establishment and direction setting phase, with a
considered and well researched approach to negotiation and the development of the
agreements. The Queensland PLI struggled at this phase, as identified in the earlier
comparisons, due to a poor institutional policy framework.
All of the states appear to have under estimated the resources required to maintain the
ongoing operation and future development of the partnerships. Not surprisingly,
communication has emerged as a key ingredient for maintaining an effective partnership.
Importantly, good communication is not only required for the exchange of data, but also
helps to maintain and support the relationships that have been built by the partnership.
The issues of governance and performance management are relatively new areas to many
government projects. Projects established during the mid to late 1990s would not have
considered performance measures during the project design. However, performance
management issues are now impacting on each of these initiatives as they struggle to deal
with the operational and maintenance challenges of a mature project. Each jurisdiction is
responding differently to these challenges, but all would agree that understanding their
performance and articulating that performance to upper management was extremely
important. Governance arrangements, particularly in Victoria and Tasmania have
identified the need for improved reporting, performance management, greater stakeholder
involvement and wider jurisdictional support.
5.5.3 Contribution to SDI Development
It is also useful to examine the contribution of each of the three cases across the
dimensions of the SDI framework.
This comparison is useful in identifying the strengths and weakness of each of the data
sharing partnerships and their ability to contribute to the state SDI initiatives and
development. As can be seen from Table 5.3, the performance of the Victorian PIP across
the five dimensions of SDI identifies that the PIP partnership is contributing positively to
the State’s SDI development strategy.
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