Business journalist Michael West investigated the cost of data in countries around the world and found that Australia likely has the highest rates in the world. His detailed report is worth reading.

West wrote that charges were likely to increase even more if the selloff of the ASIC database went ahead.

Natalie O'Brien, the economic fairness campaign director for the activist group GetUp, pointed out that Finance Minister Mathias Cormann had said the government had not yet made a final decision on the sale.

A total of 40,000 Australians have signed a petition asking the government to keep the database in public hands.

"Journalists, academics and civil society groups rely on the ASIC database to scrutinise corporate financial affairs. In particular, the database has been at the heart of efforts to expose corporate tax avoidance," O'Brien said.

"Putting the corporate database in corporate hands? This harebrained idea could only have come from a government in a cozy, backdoor relationship with Big Business.

"The database forms the paper trail for many types of shady or illicit corporate behaviour, including tax dodging, human trafficking, corruption, money laundering, bribery and embezzlement."

O'Brien said the exorbitant ASIC charges prevented journalists and academics from doing their jobs and also made it tough for small business owners to do due diligence on businesses with whom they work.

“The tender process may end today, but the fight to keep the ASIC database in public hands is far from over. Over 40,000 Australians have banded together to stop the sell off and call for the costly access charges to be scrapped”, she said.

GetUp said the winner of the tender process was due to be announced in October but a spokesperson for Cormann said this was incorrect. 

"The government is completing a market testing process and will make decisions on further steps after evaluating the final bids," the spokesperson said. "The government has not yet decided whether to proceed with a sale."