Privacy Legislation
The Privacy Act 1988 is the principal piece of legislation providing protection of personal information in the federal public sector and in the private sector (other statutory provisions also affect privacy). There are also separate privacy regimes applying to state and territory public sectors.
The Privacy Act provides 11 Information Privacy Principles for the federal public sector and 10 National Privacy Principles for private sector organisations. These Privacy Principles deal with all stages of the processing of personal information, setting out standards for the collection, use, disclosure, quality and security of personal information. They also create rights of access to, and correction of, an individual’s own personal information.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is responsible for, among other things, investigating breaches of the Information Privacy Principles and National Privacy Principles. With the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Reform) Act 2010, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner will become part of the new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. For further information, go to the FOI Reform page.
Acting Privacy Commissioner
Professor John McMillan will act as the Privacy Commissioner pending the appointment of a full-time Privacy Commissioner. Professor McMillan is the Australian Information Commissioner Designate.
Note that the Government is in the process of implementing major reforms to privacy legislation. For more information on these reforms please see the Privacy Reforms page.