ABSTRACT
The Australian federal government released a Discussion Paper discussing possible amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 in October 2021. They include potentially the most extensive proposed changes to the Privacy Act since the inclusion of the private sector in its scope (2000). Many factors make it difficult to know which aspects of the sprawling DP are most important to address and will make it more difficult to say that important reforms (whether proposals or not) have been ‘rejected’ in any final Bill.
None of the proposals address what is clearly ‘the elephant in the room’, namely Australia’s scandalous wholesale exemptions from the scope of the Act: ‘small’ businesses (over 95% of Australian businesses); employment uses of information; political parties; journalism; some public sector uses (particularly police and intelligence); and publicly available information. When or whether exemptions will ever be addressed remains unspecified …
Greenleaf, Graham and Kemp, Katharine, Australia’s Privacy Act Discussion Paper: ‘All that Is Solid Melts into Air’ (January 22, 2022). (2022) 175 Privacy Laws and Business International Report 22-26.
First posted 2022-04-22 15:15:42
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