Mandatory data breach notification bill passes Parliament – soon to become law

The long anticipated Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Bill 2016 (Cth) (Bill) has passed through the Parliament and is soon to become law.

First introduced into Parliament on 19 October 2016, the Bill was debated in the House of Representatives before being passed on 7 February 2017. Subsequently the Bill was debated in the Senate, with a number of proposed amendments being introduced to broaden the scope of the Bill. These amendments were not successful and so the Bill as originally drafted was passed by the Senate on 13 February 2017. Our summary of the details of the Bill is here.

All that is required now before the Bill becomes law is for the Governor General to provide Royal Assent, which we will continue to track closely.