This will depend on whose personal information the organisation is holding in the account record. Generally speaking, if the account is only in your partner's name, the organisation is trying to keep that information secure by not giving you access to any of the information it's holding about your partner.

If this practice is causing you difficulties you and your partner can ask the organisation to make arrangements for you to have access to some or all of the information it is holding in your partner's account. The organisation will need to have your partner's consent to do this.

However, there is one situation where an organisation can give you some information on another person's account. This is if you are intending to pay off an amount of consumer credit (that is, credit for family or household purposes) for another person. Here the Privacy Act does allow the credit provider to give you information about the amount owing (section 18N(1)(bf)). The organisation has a responsibility to make sure that you really are intending to pay off the debt.

The Privacy Act has ten principles or rules about the way organisations must handle personal information and these include rules about keeping it secure and who the organisation can give the information to. For further information, please read the National Privacy Principles which regulate the way an organisation handles personal information it holds about you.