Federal parliament approves massive increases in penalties for privacy breaches

Recent cyber-attacks such as the Optus data breach have affected millions of Australians and driven privacy reforms in Australia to move at a record speed. We have previously discussed the world-leading privacy penalty regime and the extended privacy long-arm jurisdiction introduced by the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022 (Cth) (Bill) amending Australia's Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

The Bill passed both Houses of Parliament on 28 November 2022 without major amendments and will be effective following assent by the Governor-General, which is expected to take place imminently.

Various political parties and industrial groups made submissions and recommendations to the Bill. Although not accepted in the final Bill, these submissions provide indications of how Australia's privacy reform may develop. The Federal Government has committed to revisit the issues raised as part of its ongoing review of the Privacy Act, to be