Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a few comments on all the amendments the government has moved, except amendment (17). I welcome this raft of amendments, which in part exhibits a responsiveness and attentiveness to coalition senators' concerns in a dissenting report. We are unaccustomed to this but welcome that tendency by the government in this case at least to take these matters on board and to move amendments that respond to them. I particularly welcome the extension of the commencement date of the legislation. It was very clear from the inquiry that the new regime will be very complex and the stakeholders themselves made clear that the time frame originally provided for—nine months from royal assent for the commencement of the legislation—was too short. The Australian Bankers Association, for example, said:

… as far as the general privacy provisions are concerned, the proposed implementation timeframe in the Bill will be insufficient for our members to implement those reforms effectively.

It has taken four years since the Law Reform Commission initiated this process of improving our privacy regime until the legislation was tabled this year. It would be a pity if such a long period of time had elapsed and then the implementation were so rushed that the process was not effectively consummated.

I also note what the minister said about Australian Privacy Principle 7 and the issue of direct marketing. I welcome the fact that the drafting of that privacy principle has been amended to make it clear that not all direct marketing is prohibited—except that which is expressly exempted by the principle. I want to put on record that I am aware of still serious concerns in some parts of industry, in this case particularly the online sector, that this issue is not yet resolved. They have concerns that the model used for marketing on platforms such as Yahoo, Facebook and so forth is not accommodated by this legislation as currently drafted. They remain concerned that they may not be able to deliver, because of the arrangements in place with our privacy principles outlawing direct marketing based on the private information supplied to those platforms by their customers, a product to Australian customers which they can deliver to customers pretty well anywhere else in the world.

I believe the minister said he would be ensuring a review was conducted. I welcome that. I hope that inherent in that there would not be any prosecution of parties in circumstances where current business practices were continued which have been thought and understood by suppliers of those services to be acceptable under these new arrangements but which in fact are not covered by the new legislation. Those matters are not clear. I hope the government will exercise restraint in addressing its discussions with the online sector as to how it overcomes any differences of view about how these changes are to be implemented.

Having said that, I think these amendments take this legislation to a better place. I personally welcome them.