Privacy Act 1988 - Part VI - Public Interest Determination No. 13 - Disclosure and collection of personal information to improve outcomes for children and young people at risk of serious harm
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Pending law reform
Following its review of Australian privacy law, the Australian Law Reform Commission (the ALRC) released its report ‘For your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice’ in August 2008 (Report 108).[4] In Report 108, the ALRC recommended that a new use and disclosure principle should include an exception permitting to the use and disclose of personal information where agencies or organisations reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to an individual’s life, health or safety. [5] The ALRC considered that the ‘current requirement that the requisite threats to an individual be imminent as well as serious sets a disproportionately high bar to the use and disclosure of personal information.’[6]
The Australian Government in its First Stage Response to Report 108 (the Response) has indicated that it will remove the requirement for ‘imminence’ in relation to disclosures as part of the major reform to the Privacy Act.[7] The Response proposes that agencies and organisations should be permitted to use or disclose personal information where necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to an individual’s life, health or safety only after consent has first been sought, where that is reasonable and practicable.
The proposed amendments to the Privacy Act are yet to be made.