Interesting Times Ahead For Privacy Law Reform In Australia

On 16 February 2023 the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department released its Privacy Act Review Report 2022 (the "Report") on Australia's privacy laws.The review covered a wide range of areas largely relating to data protection issues but also one of the terms of reference is whether a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy should be introduced into Australia.

One of 116 recommendations to come out of the report is the proposal that there should in fact be a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy. This is not a new recommendation as it was first proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission in 2014 (ALRC Report 123). Indeed it is widely recognised, as the Report acknowledges, that existing laws or causes of action such as breach of confidence or defamation do not provide sufficient redress for a serious invasion of privacy. When considering what would be the best model to adopt the preferred option is the ALRC Report 123 model which