Privacy

Privacy is a rapidly developing area of law, both in Australia and more generally in the Western world. After the Commonwealth passed the Privacy Act in 1988, New South Wales was the first Australian state to introduce comprehensive privacy legislation with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988 (NSW) creating enforceable privacy rights against public sector agencies in New South Wales. Victoria subsequently enacted privacy legislation in 2000, and the Northern Territory introduced privacy legislation in 2002, which commenced in 2004. South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania have non-legislative privacy schemes, the Commonwealth Privacy Act applies to the Australian Capital Territory, and Western Australia does not yet have any comprehensive privacy legislation