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ARTICLE · 02 OCTOBER 2026

WA Privacy Laws: What Local Governments Need To Do Now

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Western Australian local governments face new obligations under the Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024, which introduces Information Privacy Principles and mandatory serious data-breach reporting. How should councils prepare their governance frameworks, policies, and incident-response capabilities to meet these requirements by the July 2026 and January 2027 deadlines?

AustraliaPrivacy
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What do Western Australia’s new privacy laws require local governments to do, and how should they prepare for mandatory serious data-breach reporting from January 2027?

From 1 July 2026, Western Australian local governments must comply with the Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024 (WA), including the Information Privacy Principles governing how personal information is collected, used, stored, disclosed and disposed of. Local governments should review their privacy governance, policies, complaint processes, contracts, records management and information-sharing practices, while preparing for mandatory serious data-breach reporting from 1 January 2027 by strengthening incident-response plans, data mapping and internal escalation procedures.

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