Commencement of Information Privacy Act

The Information Privacy Act 2014 commenced today, bringing into place a new system for protecting privacy in the ACT.

The Act promotes the protection of individual privacy by regulating the handling and management of personal information by ACT public sector agencies.

“It requires agencies to protect personal information and manage it in a responsible, transparent and balanced way,” Attorney-General, Simon Corbell, said.

“At the same time, the Information Privacy Act supports the efficient delivery of services to Canberrans by the ACT Government.”

The Information Privacy Act 2014 introduces a new set of Territory Privacy Principles (TPPs), setting out rules for the handling and management of personal information. These principles are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles, recently introduced by the Commonwealth.

“The TPPs will guide the protection of personal information by ACT agencies and underpin the sharing of information within an appropriate framework,” Mr Corbell said.

“In particular, the principles place additional emphasis on the proactive design and implementation of practices, procedures and policies for the management of personal information.

“The Act also establishes a system for the handling of privacy complaints by the independent Information Privacy Commissioner.”

For more information visit www.justice.act.gov.au or www.oaic.gov.au.

(Simon Corbell Media Release)