Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

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PRIVACY AMENDMENT (RE-IDENTIFICATION OFFENCE) BILL 2016

                              2016-2017




   THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA




                               SENATE




PRIVACY AMENDMENT (RE-IDENTIFICATION OFFENCE) BILL 2016




      ADDENDUM TO THE EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM




                     (Circulated by authority of the
      Attorney-General, Senator the Honourable George Brandis QC)
PRIVACY AMENDMENT (RE-IDENTIFICATION OFFENCE) BILL 2016

GENERAL OUTLINE

On page 12, in paragraph 18, in the first sentence, after the words 'a State or Territory
authority', insert:

(including universities)

On page 14, in paragraph 26, after the sentence ending in 'under subsection 16D(6) and (7) of
the Bill', insert:

For example, unintentional re-identification that occurs as a by-product of public interest
research using a government dataset, for example through data matching, would not
constitute an offence under section 16D.

On page 16, at the end of paragraph 37, insert:

This is particularly the case where a contract between an entity and Commonwealth agency is
not publicly available. It would therefore be significantly more difficult and costly for the
prosecution to prove that the exception did not apply, as it would require the prosecution to
first enquire and establish whether such a contract exists and, if so, then establish that the
conduct was not consistent with that contract.

On page 16, at the end of paragraph 39, insert:

This is particularly the case where an agreement between an entity and Commonwealth
agency is not publicly available. It would therefore be significantly more difficult and costly
for the prosecution to prove that the exception did not apply, as it would require the
prosecution to first enquire and establish whether such an agreement exists and, if so, then
establish that the conduct was not consistent with the agreement.

On page 19, at the end of paragraph 52, insert:

Accordingly, the offence and civil penalty are confined only to situations where the entity
intentionally discloses the re-identified information.

On page 20, at the end of paragraph 61, insert:

This is particularly the case where a contract between an entity and Commonwealth agency is
not publicly available. It would therefore be significantly more difficult and costly for the
prosecution to prove that the exception did not apply, as it would require the prosecution to
first enquire and establish whether such a contract exists and, if so, then establish that the
conduct was not consistent with that contract.




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On page 21, at the end of paragraph 63, insert:

This is particularly the case where an agreement between an entity and Commonwealth
agency is not publicly available. It would therefore be significantly more difficult and costly
for the prosecution to prove that the exception did not apply, as it would require the
prosecution to first enquire and establish whether such an agreement exists and, if so, then
establish that the conduct was not consistent with the agreement.

On page 26, in paragraph 93, after the sentence ending in 'in relation to one or more specified
purposes', insert:

This is intended to provide an appropriate balance between protecting the privacy of
individuals and allowing for legitimate research to continue. In view of the narrow scope of
the proposed offences and civil penalties in sections 16D, 16E and 16F, it is not expected
there will be a large number of entities which will need exemptions. This demonstrates that
the breadth of the exemption in section 16G is appropriate.




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