On 29 November 2024, the first tranche of sweeping Australian privacy reforms under the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) (Bill) passed both Houses of Parliament. We previously considered the Bill when it was tabled on 12 September
Australia
Australian mandatory data breach notification on the agenda again
The Australian Federal Parliament commenced sitting on August 30, 2016, and the long-proposed mandatory data breach notification legislation is again on the newly-elected Coalition Government’s agenda. Currently, the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) does not require an organisation or agency to notify an individual of a data breach involving their personal information, but this looks likely to change soon.
Australian Mandatory Data Breach Regime Moves Closer to Reality
As mentioned in our previous legal update, the Australian Attorney-General’s Department released and sought comments on an exposure draft of a mandatory data breach notification bill, the Privacy Amendment (Notification of Serious Data Breaches) Bill 2015 (Cth) (Exposure Bill). The time for submissions has now closed, and the Attorney-General’s Department has published a number of the non-confidential submissions in relation to the Exposure Bill on its website.
Data breach notification places cyber-risk at the top of the agenda


The bar is to be raised yet again for privacy compliance in Australia. Cyber-risk has become a key agenda item for boards for the public sector, and the impending mandatory data breach notification regime is set to propel cyber-risk to the top of the agenda.
Schrems: the global impact – how the ECJ ruling is affecting countries outside the EU and US

A number of jurisdictions around the world follow the lead from Europe in relation to data protection and impose similar restrictions on the export of personal data unless there is an “adequate level” of protection offered in the recipient jurisdiction. The EU Commission’s “US Safe Harbor” decision had permitted the transfer of personal data between Europe and the US by establishing that an adequate level of data protection was ensured by the EU-US Safe Harbor scheme.
Australia: Metadata retention commences, but breach notification is delayed
On 13 October 2015, substantial amendments to the Australian Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) (TIA) took effect to introduce a new metadata retention scheme into the TIA. This scheme requires telecommunications carriers and internet service providers (telcos) operating in Australia to maintain records of certain telecommunications data, known as ‘metadata’, for a period of two years.