On 19 October 2011, the Governor-General approved an amendment to the Administrative Arrangements Order transferring responsibilities for privacy and freedom of information policy from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Attorney-General’s Department. The Privacy and Freedom of Information Policy Branch within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has transferred to the Attorney-General’s Department as the Information Law and Policy Branch. Relevant parts of this webpage and its contents will shortly be updated and relocated to the website of the Attorney-General’s Department (www.ag.gov.au).
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 Australian Information Commissioner is responsible for, among other things, investigating breaches of the Information Privacy Principles and National Privacy Principles. As a result of recent FOI reforms, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was integrated into the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. For further information, visit the FOI Reform page.
Privacy Commissioner
Mr Timothy Pilgrim was appointed as the Privacy Commissioner for a term of 5 years from 19 July 2010.
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.