Australia’s Privacy Act Reforms: Fundamental Changes Proposed In New Exposure Draft

Australia's Privacy Act reform process has reached a critical milestone after more than three years of review, consultation, and incremental legislative action. On 31 August 2026, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland released exposure draft legislation for the second, and most substantive, tranche of reforms. It proposes a new ‘fair and reasonable’ test for the collection and use of personal information, a right of erasure targeting large digital platforms, stronger consent standards, a statutory controller/processor framework, restrictions on the trading of personal data, and enhanced data breach and fraud management obligations.

The reforms come at a time when emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, biometric surveillance and smart glasses have sharpened public and regulatory expectations around how organisations handle personal information. While the first tranche of privacy reforms (enacted in late 2024) expanded the Office of the Australian Information