The Australian Privacy Commissioner is not waiting for another reform

Australian data privacy is at crossroads. The newish Privacy Commissioner has a clear vision. With the new enforcement powers granted to her in the first of several promised reform packages late last year and with an increased budget, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is well equipped to pursue that vision.

Australian data privacy is a relatively complex set of general and sectoral laws at federal and state level. At its core are the Australian privacy principles which somewhat resemble those in the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Privacy Commissioner recently explained her strategic focus in using enforcement action to advance data privacy jurisprudence in courts and give more specific guidance back to entities about exactly what the law requires. In other words, the Commissioner is putting meat on the bone of the principle-based law, to match the rising expectation of the public and emerging good practices in corporate governance.

This will result in a cultural change in how data privacy compliance is perceived by boardrooms across Australia, which remain dominated by ill-informed defensive compliance approaches and misguided resistance by business leaders. This is all about the change.

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