Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PRIVACY (PRIVATE SECTOR) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2002 (NO. 1) 2002 NO. 105

STATUTORY RULES 2002 No. 105

Issued by the authority of the Attorney-General

Privacy Act 1988

Privacy (Private Sector) Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 1)

Subsection 100(1) of the Privacy Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed; or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe four New South Wales State Owned Corporations (SOCs) under section 6F of the Act, so that they are subject to the same privacy obligations as private sector organisations. The SOCs prescribed for the purposes of section 6F are set out in Schedule 1 of the Regulations.

The private sector provisions of the Act came into effect on 21 December 2001. The provisions apply to "organisations" as defined in section 6C of the Act. State and Territory authorities, including SOCs, do not fall within the definition of organisation unless they have been incorporated under the Corporations Law.

Under section 6F of the Act, an otherwise exempt State or Territory authority may be prescribed so that the Act applies to it as if it were an organisation. Subsection 6F(3) of the Act provides that before the Governor-General makes a regulation prescribing an authority, the Minister must be satisfied that the relevant State or Territory has requested the authority be prescribed; and consult with the Federal Privacy Commissioner (the Privacy Commissioner) about the desirability of regulating under the Act the collection, holding, use, correction, disclosure and transfer of personal information by the authority.

On 24 October 2001, the Premier of NSW, the Hon Bob Carr MP wrote to the Attorney-General, the Hon Daryl Williams AM QC MP, requesting that four SOCs involved in the retail supply of electricity in NSW be prescribed under section 6F. In accordance with section 6F(3), the Attorney-General wrote to the Privacy Commissioner on 20 February 2002 requesting his views on the proposed regulations. On 6 March 2002, the Deputy Privacy Commissioner, Mr Timothy Pilgrim, replied on behalf of the Privacy Commissioner. The view of the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner was that the regulations would be desirable as they would subject SOCs involved in energy retailing to the same privacy obligations as privately owned businesses.

The regulations commence on 1 June 2002.