Options for reform
3.29 The ALRC has considered various options to achieve national consistency in the regulation of personal information handling, including the amendment of the Privacy Act to establish a single national privacy law, and the establishment of an intergovernmental cooperative scheme. These options are outlined below.National legislation3.30 As noted above, the Commonwealth has the power under …
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Advisory Committee and Sub-committees1.80 It is standard operating procedure for the ALRC to establish an expert Advisory Committee to assist with the development of its inquiries.[96] In this Inquiry, the Advisory Committee includes current and former Privacy Commissioners; representatives from the business and government sector; privacy and consumer advocates; privacy professionals; health and social service …
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Read moreKey Issues from the ALRC Family Violence Inquiry | Australian Women Lawyers Third National Conference—Justice for All
Professor Rosalind Croucher, President, Australian Law Reform Commission, Stamford Plaza Brisbane 6–8 August 2010Opening remarks Chief Justice Diana Bryant, Madame President (Olivia Perkiss), your Honours, fellow conference delgates. It is a great pleasure to be here today. The first time I had the opportunity to speak about the ALRC’s Family Violence inquiry it was at the …
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1.9 The ALRC adopts similar methods across its law reform projects, although these may be tailored to the circumstances of a particular inquiry. The process is essentially one of intensive research on the part of members and staff of the Commission, which is informed by the guidance of an Advisory Committee, targeted consultations with stakeholders, …
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Read moreAn extended cross-vesting scheme: an option for reform
Introduction15.26 The above problems all centre on co-ordination between the jurisdictions and the relative responsibilities of the States and Territories and the Commonwealth. The question this poses for the Inquiry is how to re-orient responsibilities and enhance co-ordination so that care and protection and family law disputes are resolved more rationally, expeditiously, fairly and with …
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Read moreConsequential reforms of the system
15.49 Some submissions disagreed that any amendment to the jurisdictional arrangements is necessary, agreeing rather with the assertion that ‘[w]hat needs to be resolved once and for all is for the welfare authorities to enter into appropriate work practices to stop their forum shopping’.[116] There is room for improvement of the current arrangements.15.50 Generalist magistrates …
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Read moreAustralian Government agencies
15.53 A common theme of this Inquiry is the personal nature of secrecy obligations. Individual compliance, however, depends upon the practices and processes of Australian Government agencies. For example, one of the risk factors identified by the CMC for the unauthorised disclosure of information by individuals is a failure by the employing agency consistently to …
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Read moreLawful and reasonable employer directions
14.54 All employees, including Commonwealth employees, must comply with any ‘lawful and reasonable direction’ issued by their employer. The scope of the common law duty to comply with lawful and reasonable directions is discussed in Chapter 12. In particular, employees are obliged to comply with a command that ‘relates to the subject matter of the …
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Read moreImplementing the reform
8.87 Although the drafters of the Privacy Act may not have had genetic samples in mind, the NPPs are drafted as high level principles capable of flexible interpretation in a myriad of circumstances. The NPPs do not prescribe exactly what an organisation must do to comply with them. Rather, they apply broad standards—for example, based …
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Read moreLaw reform in times of rapid scientific change
4.18 A critical issue for this Inquiry is how to make today’s law reform relevant to the scientific developments of tomorrow. The importance and the difficulty of achieving this was a common theme in submissions made to the Inquiry. For example, Louise Martinovic submitted:There is widespread community concern that as developments in [human genetics] are …
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