overview
framework
principles
coherence
1988 Act
other law
2000 Act
states
codes
money
media
health
genetic
adoption
policing
justice
crimes
homes
workplace
retail
venues
politics
cases 1
cases 2
landmarks
related
Guides:
Privacy
Secrecy
Censorship
related
Profiles:
Human
Rights
Australian
Constitution
& Cyberspace
Australia
Card
Registers
100 Points
Scheme
Intelligence
agencies
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Overview
This profile supplements discussion of Australian privacy
regimes in the separate Privacy guide.
It offers a more detailed analysis of federal, state and
territory privacy legislation and industry codes, including
federal Privacy Act coverage of government/nongovernment
entities and provisions in other legislation regarding
archives, spent convictions and medical data.
in this profile
The following pages cover -
- framework
- a snapshot of the interaction of federal, state and
territory privacy laws and agencies
- principles
- the Information Privacy Principles (IPP) and National
Privacy Principles (NPP), keystones of the national
privacy enactments
- coherence
- the Australian Law Reform Commission's proposals for
a coherent national regime centred on Unified Privacy
Principles (UPP) and featuring a tort of privacy
- the
1988 Act - legislation and operational aspects of
how the Privacy Act affects Commonwealth government
agencies
- other
law - privacy provisions in the Telecommunications,
Archives and other legislation, along with medical research
codes of practice
- the
2000 Act - how the Commonwealth legislation covers
private sector organisations (and which ones)
- states
- state and territory legislation and protocols covering
workplace and other surveillance, adoption, medical
information and the activity of government agencies
- industry
codes - private sector codes of practice, of varying
degrees of stringency or credibility
- money
- consumer credit and other financial privacy
- media
- protection against media intrusion?
- health
- medical record privacy in Australia
- genetic
privacy
- adoption
- privacy aspects of adoption, death, marriage and divorce
records
- policing
- body searches and other questions
- justice
- evidence, judges and juries
- crimes
- criminal records, including 'spent convictions' and
offender registration
- homes
- is your house your castle?
- workplace
- employee surveillance and privacy
- retail
- privacy and surveillance in shops and transport networks
- venues
- and in entertainment venues such as pubs, clubs and
arenas
- politics
- political privacy in Australia
- cases
1 - Australian privacy case law
- cases
2 - Australian privacy case law
- landmarks
- a chronology with highlights of privacy law development
in Australia
The
Censorship and Secrecy
guides elsewhere on this site discuss official secrets,
freedom of information, whistleblowing and media/confessional
privilege in Australia and overseas.
The separate Surveillance & Identification profile
includes a discussion of media self-regulation and community
attitudes regarding the personal lives of 'public' figures.
This site also features supplementary profiles and notes
on the Australia Card,
credit reporting, government
registers, the 100
Points identity verification Scheme under the Financial
Transaction Reports Act and other issues.
orientation
Privacy protection, like most information law in Australia,
is an uneasy mix of federal legislation, state/territory
legislation and industry codes of practice that on occasion
receive only lip-service from major organisations such
publishers, broadcasters or direct marketers. There is
no tort of privacy.
As we have noted in the
Privacy guide, the Australian constitution does not feature
explicit protection for privacy and in November 2001 the
High Court commented
that aspects of the 1930s Victoria Park decision
- the landmark common law case - must have seemed anachronistic
even at the time they were made.
That assessment was endorsed by the Australian Law Reform
Commission in its major 2008 For Your Information:
Australian Privacy Law & Practice report,
which highlighted inconsistencies and inadequacies in
a range of Australian legislation and recommended major
changes.
The development of Australian law and practice that effectively
addresses the digital environment has involved the uneven
accretion of legislation and protocols, usually on a reactive
basis and often with considerable variation across the
country's jurisdictions.
Overall, development has moved outwards from regulation
of government practice (in particular dealing with taxation
and other financial transactions) to embrace medical data
handling and - most recently - the activity of some private
sector entities. The adequacy of recent changes has been
seriously questioned by Australian business and consumer
groups and by overseas observers, in particular regarding
the legislation's failure to keep pace with the EU Data
Protection Directive and subsequent electronic commerce
directives.
Implementation of the new legislation is uncertain and,
as the High Court observed, it is likely that ongoing
pressure within/outside Australia from business, consumers
and entities will result in significant further changes
to the main federal legislation and to codes dealing with
media and marketing activity.
next page (the
Australian privacy framework)
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