The Australian Government released a Consultation Paper and Exposure Draft legislation to modernise and strengthen Australia's privacy laws for the digital age.

Australian Industry Group supports proportionate privacy reform that strengthens protection for individuals while preserving clear, workable and coherent obligations for employers and other regulated entities. According to the Consultation Paper, the Government is pursuing changes to strengthen protection for individuals and promote confidence in the responsible handling of personal information. Those objectives should be pursued through targeted obligations that operate coherently alongside existing workplace laws.

Australian Industry Group's principal concern is that broad concepts in the Exposure Draft Bill, including 'relates to', reasonable identifiability, collection, sensitive information, consent, disclosure, processor responsibility, fair and reasonable handling, data security, breach notification, de-identification, access and erasure, must be capable of practical application in ordinary workplace systems. The proposed changes should distinguish legitimate, proportionate and transparent employment, safety, compliance and operational activities from intrusive, covert, unrelated or speculative uses of personal information. This requires practical guidance, clear statutory criteria where appropriate, realistic transition, and examples that address workplace issues, including as they relate to employees, contractors, labour hire personnel, visitors, service providers, mixed records and outsourced workplace systems.