Commonwealth legislation

Privacy Regulations 2006

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

334 of 2006

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

2/10 complexity

These regulations operate under the Privacy Act 1988 to protect census confidentiality.

What it does The regulations designate sections 19 and 19A of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 as "designated secrecy provisions."

Why this matters Under the Privacy Act, the Information Commissioner can investigate complaints about privacy breaches. However, the Commissioner must not investigate any complaint if doing so would require breaking a "designated secrecy provision" listed in these regulations.

Practical effect If someone complains that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) mishandled their personal information, the Privacy Commissioner cannot investigate if the investigation would force the ABS to disclose census data in breach of sections 19 or 19A. These sections make it illegal to reveal individual census answers or identifying details.

In short: Census secrecy overrides privacy investigations. These regulations simply name the specific census laws that trigger this exemption.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Privacy Regulations 2006.

Privacy Regulations 2006

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Privacy Regulations 20061

Select Legislative Instrument 2006 No. 334

I, PHILIP MICHAEL JEFFERY, Governor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following Regulations under the Privacy Act 1988.

Dated 13 December 2006

P. M. JEFFERY

Governor‑General

By His Excellency’s Command

PHILIP RUDDOCK

Attorney‑General

1 Name of Regulations

These Regulations are the Privacy Regulations 2006.

2 Commencement

These Regulations commence on the day after they are registered.

3 Definitions

In these Regulations:

Act means the Privacy Act 1988.

10 Designated secrecy provisions

For paragraph 80P (7) (d) of the Act, the following provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 are prescribed:

(a) section 19;

(b) section 19A.

Note

Note: 1. All legislative instruments and compilations are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments kept under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003. See www.frli.gov.au.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Privacy Regulations 2006