As most of you will know, in September, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 was introduced into the Parliament to enact the first tranche of reforms to the Privacy Act 1988, following agreement by Government to implement a number of legislative proposals put forward in the Privacy Act Review.
In addition to Privacy Act Reforms, the Bill also proposes to introduce a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy and criminal offences to respond to doxxing.
Following introduction in the Parliament, the Bill was referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report and that report was published last week.
The Report supports passage of the Bill subject to 10 recommendations, including the following:
- That the minimum consultation period for the Children’s Online Privacy Code is extended to at least 60 days.
- That the Bill is amended to include a requirement for the Information Commissioner to consult with relevant industry bodies or organisations when developing the Children’s Online Privacy Code.
- That the exclusion for media organisations from accessing personal information during declared emergencies is extended to exclude national broadcasters such as the ABC and SBS.
- That the Bill is amended to empower the Information Commissioner to issue discretionary notices to entities to remedy alleged breaches of the Privacy Act in certain circumstances, before issuing an infringement notice.
- That the Explanatory memorandum to the Bill be amended to make clear that the level of information required in privacy policies is not expected to compromise commercial-in-confidence information about automated decision-making systems.
- That the government consider amending clause 7 of the Bill to make a number of amendments to the operation of the statutory tort.
- That the government considers amending the Bill to ensure that the journalism exemption applies to a person involved in the publication, re-publication or distribution of journalistic material.
- That the Bill be amended to make clear that the concept of ‘journalistic material’ for the serious invasions of the privacy tort includes ‘editorial’ material.
Amendments have been tabled by Senator David Shoebridge to include a fair and reasonable test, a definition of consent, and a revised definition of Personal Information along the lines of the Privacy Act Review Report Recommendations in this first tranche of reforms. This is also in line with submissions made to the Committee by the OAIC. We will keep you updated on the progress of the Bill in the remaining sitting days of the Parliament.