The Law Handbook 2024

1124 Section 12: Government and the individual records of information from the interceptions, and requires a destruction regime. It also provides for a Victorian inspectorate who must inspect records of interceptions and report on any contravention of the legislation. Other Victorian laws Many other Victorian Acts have longstanding ‘purpose-built’ privacy protection through the inclusion of specific confidentiality provisions. These provisions are often accompanied by significant penalty provisions for non-compliance. The following Acts are a few examples: • Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic) – protects driver licence holders and vehicle owners; • Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) – in relation to both child protection and youth justice functions; • Corrections Act 1986 (Vic) – protects the personal information of both past and current prisoners, and that of individuals completing community based orders; • Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (Vic) – protects the personal information of registered sex offenders; • Business Licensing Authority Act 1998 (Vic) – provides for applications to the registrar to restrict personal information on public registers from public access; • Electoral Act 2002 (Vic) – protects electoral roll information from unauthorised use. Privacy legislation in other jurisdictions All states and territories, except South Australia and Western Australia, have enacted specific information privacy legislation that regulates how certain public and private sector organisations collect, handle and store personal information about individuals. (The Western Australian Government is currently considering whole-of-government privacy and responsible information sharing legislation.) Some jurisdictions, including Victoria and those without a general privacy statute protecting personal information, give health information specific or additional legislative protection. Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland have human rights legislation that recognises the broader right to privacy under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and requires public sector organisations to act in a way that is compatible with privacy and other human rights. For Australian organisations that sell to overseas markets, it is common to find commitments in the website privacy policies about compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) or other overseas privacy laws. However, although some overseas privacy laws, like the GDPR, can impose some obligations on Australian companies, they do not give enforceable privacy protection under those overseas laws for people in Australia. Instead, people in Australia should look to local laws to enforce their privacy rights. Contacts Privacy: Commonwealth Complaints or requests for more information about Commonwealth privacy laws may be made to: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) Tel: 1300 363 992 Web: www.oaic.gov.au Privacy: Victoria Complaints or requests for more information about Victorian privacy issues and laws may be made to: Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner Level 26, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne Vic 3000 Tel: 1300 582 113 Web: https://hcc.vic.gov.au Victorian Information Commissioner Level 6, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne Vic 3000 Tel: 1300 006 842 Email: enquiries@ovic.vic.gov.au Web: www.ovic.vic.gov.au Credit-reporting bodies Requests to access credit-related information can be made to credit-reporting bodies. The main Australian credit-reporting bodies are: Illion Australia (formerly Dun & Bradstreet) Tel: 13 23 33; 9828 3200 Web: www.illion.com.au/#illion-for-individuals