Opt-in provision

38.32 Under s 6F of the Privacy Act, state and territory governments may request that certain state and territory authorities or instrumentalities be treated as organisations under the Act. One of the purposes of this opt-in provision

is to allow statutory corporations whose activities are predominantly commercial, to ‘opt-in’ to the private sector privacy regime where the State (or Territory) and Minister (in consultation with the Privacy Commissioner) consider that it is appropriate to do so.[40]

38.33 At present, only four state-owned entities have been brought into the federal privacy regime by regulation—Country Energy, Energy Australia, Integral Energy Australia and Australian Inland Energy Water Infrastructure.[41]

[40] Revised Explanatory Memorandum, Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill 2000 (Cth), notes on clauses [96].

[41] Privacy (Private Sector) Regulations 2001 (Cth) reg 3A. Australian Inland Energy Water Infrastructure was subsequently dissolved in July 2005: Energy Services Corporation (Dissolution of Australian Inland Energy Water Infrastructure) Regulation 2005 (NSW).