Australian Regulatory Compliance Review

Privacy and credit reporting

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has released an Issues Paper calling for public comment on Australia ’s credit reporting system by 9 March 2007.

ALRC President Prof David Weisbrot said the credit reporting provisions of the Commonwealth Privacy Act were overly complex and hard to follow, and were under scrutiny as part of the ALRC’s major review of Australia’s privacy laws.

Prof Weisbrot said the ALRC issues paper, Review of Privacy—Credit Reporting Provisions (IP 32), outlines the strict limitations in Australia under the Privacy Act about the categories of personal information that may be collected and used as part of the credit reporting process.

The Commissioner in charge of the Inquiry, Prof Les McCrimmon, said that the Issues Paper sets out the arguments for and against comprehensive credit reporting and its potential impact on privacy.

IP 32 also looks at a range of reform options for credit reporting, including whether new and separate legislation is required to regulate credit reporting.

Prof McCrimmon said some of the issues being considered by the ALRC include:

• the types of information held in credit information files and credit reports;
• how credit reporting agencies and credit providers are required to protect personal information; and
• the system for resolving complaints about credit reporting, including complaints about the accuracy of information on a credit file.

The ALRC also has launched a plain-English guide to the Inquiry, Reviewing Australia’s Privacy Laws: Is Privacy Passé? (IP 31 & 32—Overview).

Access Card exposure draft bill released

The Minister for Human Services, the Hon Joe Hockey MP, has released an exposure draft of the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007 for the access card.

The exposure draft will enable public consultation and comment on the proposed legislation prior to it being introduced into Parliament in February 2007.

The Bill broadly addresses the following areas in relation to the access card, including:  

• Purpose and scope including function creep
• Information on the card and the register
• Ownership
• Protecting the card and the rights of cardholders.

Comments are to be submitted by 12 January 2007.

Overview

Exposure draft explanatory material

Queensland incorporated associations

The Associations Incorporation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 has been introduced into Queensland Parliament.

The key policy objectives of this Bill are to address the following issues through amendments to the Associations Incorporation Act 1981:

• The mandatory public liability insurance requirement will be removed but, as a safeguard, associations will be required to investigate the need to take out public liability insurance and report their decision to all members and inform other parties that might be affected. (The mandatory public liability insurance requirement has been retained, for reasons set out in the Explanatory Notes, for associations that hold land on trust under the Land Act 1994 or that own or lease land.)

• associations with total income and current assets of less than $100,000 will be exempt from full audit and reporting requirements.

AML Act starts

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 12 December 2006 .

As a first step in implementation,providers of Remittance Services (ie money transfer) and their agents are required to register with AUSTRAC from 13 December 2006.

CAMAC issues corporate social responsibility report

The Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee ("CAMAC") has issued its report on The social responsibility of corporations. The report aims to provide a pathway through the mass of material and opinions on this subject, as well as respond to questions raised in the terms of reference from the Government in 2005.

The report suggests that a company will be socially responsible if it operates in an open and accountable manner, uses its resources for productive ends, complies with relevant regulatory requirements and acknowledges and takes responsibility for the consequences of its actions.

The report recognises the importance of companies being run with a proper regard to the social and environmental consequences of their conduct. It concludes that existing legal requirements are sufficiently flexible to enable corporate decision-makers to take into account the environmental and other social aspects of their decisions.

According to CAMAC, any amendment of the Corporations Act to expressly to require or permit directors to have regard to enumerated special interests would not be likely to improve the quality of corporate decision-making and could in fact be counterproductive by clouding the accountability of directors.

The report makes the point that transparency is a cornerstone of responsibility. It notes that corporate practice on the reporting of social and environmental aspects is evolving within a framework of legislative, stock exchange and market requirements and guidelines. It concludes that s 299A of the Corporations Act is an appropriate platform for the further development of such reporting. It recommends that this reporting obligation be extended beyond listed public companies to all listed entities. Beyond that, the Committee does not see a need at this stage for legislative elaboration of reporting requirements.

Asian legal information

AsianLII provides free access to legal information from all 27 countries and territories in Asia located from Japan in the east to Pakistan in the west, and from Mongolia in the north to Timor Leste in the south, including Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, People's Republic of China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

AsianLII provides for searching and browsing databases of legislation, case-law, law reform reports, law journals and other legal information, where available, from each country in the region.

AML Bill passed

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill 2006 has been passed by the Senate.

According to the Minister of Justice the regulatory regime will be introduced progressively over the next two years to allow business sufficient time to implement the measures.

More on anti-money laundering

Prudential Regulation Review

The Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer has released the proposals paper Streamlining Prudential Regulation: Response to 'Rethinking Regulation' seeking the views of interested parties on proposals in response to recommendations relating to prudential regulation.

Proposals cover:

• streamlining breach reporting;
• reviewing APRA administrative decisions;
• how prudential standards are made and administered;
• enforcement issues;
• simplifying the Life Insurance Act and SIS Act.

AML Bill update

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill 2006 has been passed by the House of Representatives following release of the report of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Government responds to Privacy Act review

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has released the Government’s responses to the Privacy Commissioner’s report, Getting in on the Act: The Review of the Private Sector Provisions in the Privacy Act 1988, and the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee report, The Real Big Brother: Inquiry into the Privacy Act 1988.

Earlier this year the Attorney-General issued a reference to the Australian Law Reform Commission to review the extent to which the Privacy Act continues to provide an effective framework for the protection of privacy in Australia. The ALRC has now released an Issues Paper. The final report is to be delivered to the Attorney-General by 31 March 2008.

Separately, regulations to ensure the Privacy Act applies to all Residential Tenancy Databases will soon be implemented.

The Attorney-General’s Department is also examining options to harmonise Commonwealth, State and Territory privacy laws.

Privacy Commissioner's response.