At long last, Australia has a privacy reform Bill before Parliament, but it is a Bill that still omits most of the promised important reforms.

In September 2023, three years after the process began(1) to reform Australia’s Privacy Act 1988, the federal government responded to the 116 proposals made in the report by the Attorney-General’s Department and made a vague commitment to substantial privacy reform. Of the 116 proposals, 89 were directed at legislative change. The government response “agreed” to 25 of these (so that legislation could be expected), “agreed-in-principle” to 56 (no definite commitment) and “noted” eight (in effect, rejected).(2)