Two cheers for privacy law reform?

British novelist E M Forster famously offered two cheers for democracy. The same might be said about the national Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill introduced into Parliament last week. It is legislation that is a good start – but alas, overdue and inadequate.

The Bill begins the process of updating the Privacy Act 1988, the centrepiece of Australia’s national privacy regime. It is important to remember that privacy law in Australia is a complex and often contradictory mix of Commonwealth and state/territory statutes and judgements covering areas such as telecommunications, medical research and personal health data, national security, journalism and workplace surveillance.

The Bill reflects the Government’s acceptance in 2010 of 197 of 295 recommendations by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in that body’s comprehensive For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice report. That report in turn reflected sustained criticism of the the 1988 Act. It also reflected overseas developments, notably the ongoing strengthening in Europe of EU Directives covering public/private sector data collection and European case law on matters such as national security and the protection of celebrities from egregious invasions of their privacy, given that respect for personal space is a fundamental human right.

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