Federal Privacy Act / Privacy in the Australian States and Territories

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Privacy in the Australian States and Territories

Victoria
New South Wales
Australian Capital Territory
Other States

Victoria

On 30 November 2000, the Information Privacy ACT (IPA) was passed by the Victorian Parliament.

The Information Privacy ACT creates privacy obligations for the management of personal information across the Victorian public sector. The IPA adopts ten Information Privacy Principles which are based on the National Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill 2000 introduced into Federal Parliament in April 2000. Some changes were made to these principles to adapt them to a State public sector context.

The Victorian Government may now appoint a state Privacy Commissioner to administer the Act and to assist with the establishment of the Privacy Commissioner's Office. Formal Complaints handling processes will not commence until September 2001.

On 3 April 2001, the Victorian Parliament passed the Health Records Act 2001. The law will come into effect from 1 July 2002 and where the Federal Privacy Act does not apply, will:

• establish a framework to protect the privacy of individuals' health information which is held in the public and private sectors; and
• provide individuals with an enforceable right of access to their health information when it is held by private sector organisations.

The Health Privacy Principles will generally apply to:

• all personal information collected in providing a health, mental health, disability, aged care or palliative care service; and
• all health information held by other organisations.

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New South Wales

The Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act was passed in 1998 and established the Office of the NSW Privacy Commissioner. The jurisdiction of the Act is generally limited to state and local government agencies.

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Australian Capital Territory

The ACT public sector complies with the Privacy Act 1988. However, it has removed health records from the jurisdiction of the Federal Privacy Commissioner by passing the ACT Health Records (Access and Privacy) Act 1997. This Act contains principles based on the privacy principles contained in the Federal legislation and gives people access to their own health records in the ACT, both in the public and private sectors.

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Other States

The Northern Territory is developing privacy legislation for the public sector only. Several states, such as South Australia and Tasmania have issued an administrative instruction requiring their government agencies to generally comply with the Federal Information Privacy Principles. However, these states, together with Queensland do not intend to develop privacy legislation for their public or private sectors at this time. It is understood that they are awaiting the outcome of the Federal private sector amendments.

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