Substantial increases to Australian privacy breach penalties passed into law.

In our most recent privacy update we discussed how the Australian government in response to recent high-profile data breaches, had introduced to parliament the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022 to reform Australian federal privacy law, in particular the Privacy Act 1988, to significantly increase penalties for serious or repeated privacy breaches. Yesterday the Bill was passed by the Senate, following rapid progress through parliament where the Bill was supported by the Opposition, and scrutinised by the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. The Bill now awaits royal assent.

The Bill provides for corporations to be subject to a maximum penalty for a serious or repeated interference of privacy to an amount not exceeding the greater of: