Editors --- "The Australian Law Reform Commission" [2010] AdminRw 21; (2010) 59 Admin Review 75

• The Australian Law Reform Commission
• Privacy
• The Royal Commissions Act
• Secrecy and confidentiality

---

The Australian Law Reform Commission

Privacy

The Australian Law Reform Commission’s final report on privacy law and practice, For Your Information: Australian privacy law and practice (report no. 108), was delivered to the Commonwealth Attorney-General on 30 May 2008 and was launched by the then Cabinet Secretary, Senator John Faulkner, and the Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert McClelland MP, on

11 August 2008. The report recommends 295 changes designed to improve Australia’s privacy framework. Central to these changes are a unified set of Privacy Principles for the public and private sectors, national consistency in privacy law at all levels of government, and keeping the Privacy Act technologically neutral to ensure its continued relevance.

The Government said it intended to respond to the report in two stages.

On 14 October 2009 it released the first stage of its response, which outlined its position in relation to 197 recommendations relating to the following:

• developing a single set of Privacy Principles

• redrafting and updating the structure of the Privacy Act

• responding to the impact of new technologies on privacy

• strengthening and clarifying the Privacy Commissioner’s powers and functions

• introducing comprehensive credit reporting and better protections for credit reporting information

• improving and clarifying the protections associated with the sharing of health information and the ability to use personal information to facilitate research in the public interest.

The Government has announced that it plans to release an exposure draft implementing the first-stage response in early 2010.

The full report is available at www.pmc.gov.au/privacy/alrc.cfm.

The Royal Commissions Act

On 6 April 2009 the Australian Law Reform Commission released Review of the Royal Commissions Act (issues paper no. 35). The commission had been asked by the Attorney‑General to review the operation of the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth), including whether royal commissions have sufficient powers to operate effectively, whether there are suitable protections for the rights of people who participate in a royal commission, and whether there is a need to establish other forms of inquiry that are less formal and more cost-effective.

On 18 August 2009 the commission released discussion paper no. 75, Royal Commissions and Official Inquiries, which contained 75 proposals. The final report, Making Inquiries: a new statutory framework (report no. 111), was tabled in parliament on 4 February 2010. The report contains 82 recommendations, including that the Royal Commissions Act be amended and renamed the Inquiries Act in order to provide for the establishment of two tiers of public inquiry (royal commissions and official inquiries), that royal commissions be the highest form of inquiry established by the Governor-General to look into matters of substantial public importance, and that official inquiries be established by a minister to look into matters of public importance. Further details are available at www.alrc.gov.au.

Secrecy and confidentiality

On 5 August 2008 the Attorney-General issued to the Australian Law Reform Commission terms of reference for reviewing secrecy and confidentiality provisions in federal legislation. The commission was to ensure that whatever options it developed were ‘balanced against the need to maintain an open and accountable government through providing appropriate access to information’. An issues paper, Review of Secrecy Law, was released in February 2009 and a discussion paper in June 2009.

The final report, Secrecy Laws and Open Government in Australia (report no. 112), was tabled in parliament on 11 March 2010. The principles underpinning the ALRC’s recommendations are as follows:

• Administrative and disciplinary frameworks play the central role in ensuring that government information is handled appropriately and that every person in the information chain understands their responsibilities in respect of that information.

• Criminal sanctions should be imposed only where they are warranted—when the disclosure of government information is likely to cause harm to essential public interests—and where this is not the case the unauthorised disclosure of information is more appropriately dealt with by the imposition of administrative penalties or the pursuit of contractual remedies.

• There is a continuing role for properly framed secrecy offences—both general and specific—in protecting Commonwealth information, provided that they are clear and consistent and directed at protecting essential public interests.

The final report is available at www.alrc.gov.au/inquiries/current/secrecy/publications.html.