The politicians, particularly in the Coalition, are at it again … one law for them and their mates and another law for everyone else.
This time it is privacy. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee reported last week on the Government’s new privacy legislation. The much-delayed election promise was introduced as the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill in April.
In theory, it will apply to the private sector the privacy principles that have applied to the public sector since 1988. Great. Admittedly, the Commonwealth has big constitutional problems in applying privacy principles across Australia. It has no general power to make enforceable rights and remedies on privacy.
But it can go a long way. It has powers over corporations and the territories, and over those who contract with the Commonwealth. It can use its industrial relations power to deal with employee records. And it can use its financial power in the medical sphere.
It could also use the tactic it has used with equal opportunity legislation. Instead of rights and remedies enforceable in the courts, it can offer self-regulation, self-reporting, mediation mechanisms and publication of recalcitrant conduct in the Parliament.
Greater concerns about invasion of privacy have arisen with the development of computer capacity to store, search and sort massive amounts of data.
Fears of Big Brother Government abusing the information it has on citizens led to the 1988 Act. Now private-sector organisations, charities and not-for-profit sector are the cause of alarm. People are concerned about inaccurate credit information being passed about and being on mailing lists for unsolicited material. They are concerned about the wealth of personal information that can be compiled by using credit-card information on spending habits, for example. And health records, particularly DNA information, also pose concern, particularly if passed to employers, health funds, and life-insurance companies.