Keep up to date with ALRC news and media.
For media queries, please contact comms@alrc.gov.au.
09.12.2008
Do we need secrecy laws in an open society?
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) today released a community consultation paper for its current inquiry into Commonwealth Secrecy laws.—Review of Secrecy Laws (Issues Paper 34)—which seeks ideas and feedback about how we balance the need to maintain the secrecy and confidentiality of some government documents with a commitment to increased openness and transparency. ALRC …
Read more01.10.2008
ALRC revisits the legal rights of children and young people in Australia
It is now a little over ten years since the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission) released the landmark 1997 report Seen and Heard: Priority for Children in the Legal Process (ALRC Report 84). Seen and Heard represented the culmination of a …
Read more26.08.2008
Delenda Est Carthago!’ Sir Robert Richard Torrens and his attack on the evils of conveyancing and dependent land titles: a reflection on the sesquicentenary of the introduction of his great law reforming initiative
By Professor Rosalind F Croucher [1], ALRC Commissioner, presented as the Alex Castles Memorial Legal History Lecture for Flinders University Law School, Adelaide, 26 August 2008.‘Carthage must be destroyed!’ exclaimed Robert Richard Torrens in concluding his First Reading Speech in introducing his Bill to amend the law of real property in South Australia. Who or what was the Carthage that …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Simplifying and harmonising privacy law and practice
11 August 2008, Privacy Inquiry A consolidated set of privacy principles The Privacy Act provides different sets of Privacy Principles for the handling of personal information by government agencies and by private sector organisations. Contractors to the Australian Government, government business enterprises, and those involved in public-private partnerships may be bound to comply with both …
Read more11.08.2008
Australia must rewrite privacy laws for the Information Age
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s landmark report For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice (ALRC 108), was launched today in Sydney by the Cabinet Secretary, the Hon Senator John Faulkner, and the Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP.The three-volume, 2700 page report is the culmination of a massive research and consultation exercise conducted over …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Protecting Health Information in the Digital Age
11 August 2008 Electronic health records In recent years, there have been increasing pressures, particularly from government, to move from paper to electronic health records. The ALRC’s Privacy Inquiry coincided with a number of major initiatives to develop electronic medical records—including the proposed national Shared Electronic Health Records system, in which a summary of personal …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – New cross-border privacy laws—greater certainty for all Australians
11 August 2008The ALRC’s national consultation exercise clearly indicates that Australians are concerned about their personal information being sent or held overseas without their knowledge and consent. ALRC President, Professor David Weisbrot, said “This unease appears to reflect a general feeling by people that they are losing control over something deeply personal, with little ability …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Children, young people and privacy
11 August 2008Do the technologically savvy, confident and optimistic members of Generation Y have radically different attitudes to privacy from their Baby Boomer parents and their grandparents? ALRC President, Professor David Weisbrot, stated that, “During our Inquiry, we used a number of strategies to obtain the views of children and young people—for example, we conducted …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Technology-neutral privacy principles should govern rapidly developing ICT
The impact on privacy of rapidly developing information and communications technology is a central consideration for the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in its report For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice, released publicly today. The ALRC addresses privacy concerns by recommending the implementation of technology-neutral privacy principles, which should be supported by a …
Read more11.08.2008
Media Briefing – Reform of the credit reporting system
The Privacy Act regulates the system of credit reporting, allowing information about an individual’s credit-worthiness to be collected and disclosed to credit providers, such as banks, finance companies, mortgage companies, and mobile phone service providers. In Australia, this information is collected by a small number of specialist credit reporting companies from credit providers and from …
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