Coalition Privacy Policy

Excerpt from the Coalition Law and Justice Policy February 1996:

Privacy

The risks of centralised information storage and distribution have long been apparent. Citizens are rightly concerned to ensure that information held about them by Government and the public and private sectors is not misused.

Labor has, in far too many instances, failed to protect that privacy information. Public servants have been caught selling confidential information. Government records containing personal information have been found littering city streets. Highly confidential departmental files on computer have been hacked into with the potential for misuse.

Developments in technology and international communication networks are rendering our privacy laws hopelessly out of date. Labor's inaction is not just a threat to the right of Australians to privacy in their personal affairs. Unless our privacy laws are improved as a matter of priority, Australian business and industry will be locked out of international data flows. A recent European Community directive will have the effect of excluding Australian entities from European community data flows unless our privacy laws are substantially improved by mid-1998.

Reform is required as a matter of the utmost priority. A consistent Australia-wide approach is required.

A Liberal and National Government will as a priority, and in consultation and development with the States and Territories, ensure the implementation of a privacy law regime in Australia comparable with best international practice.

As part of achieving this goal we will:

• work with industry and the states to provide a co-regulatory approach to privacy within the private sector;
• conduct a comprehensive Parliamentary inquiry into the state of Australia's privacy laws. Amongst other things, the inquiry will examine and review legislative and administrative regimes for the protection of privacy, examine public interest and statutory exemptions, the extent of data-matching practices, compliance with international transfer standards, and the need for legislative protection of the right to privacy for individuals in respect of the media;
• review and, where appropriate, implement the recommendations of the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs "In Confidence";
• significantly increase penalties for unauthorised disclosure of information by public officers for profit. Where the disclosed material contains personal information pertaining to Australian citizens, we will ensure that harsher penalties are applicable; and
• increase the independence of the Privacy Commissioner giving him or her an expanded ability to provide advice to Parliament directly.

From the Coalition On-Line Services Policy February 1996:

Personal Privacy and Commercial Security

Labor's consistent neglect of the issue of personal privacy is shown in its attempted introduction of the Australia Card, its consistent advocacy of large-scale "dataveillance" of citizens, and its creeping expansion of the use of the tax file number in stark contrast to Mr Keating's own solemn assurances to the Parliament. To quote a recent senior Labor Minister, "privacy is a bourgeois right, related to the concept of private property".

Such an ethos makes a mockery of Labor's "commitment" to genuine information privacy safeguards. In contrast, the Coalition regards personal privacy as a cherished right in a free society.

Whilst the implementation of the principle of informed consent provides citizens with some defence, widespread trading of information and the power of new technology to collate previously unrelated pieces of information will enable the construction of highly revealing profiles on individuals. Often this can be done without individuals knowing that these profiles even exist.

The Coalition accepts that organisations have the right to certain information about their clients, provided this information is used for the purpose for which it is originally offered. However, the Coalition is opposed to such information being used for purposes for which it was not intended, unless the consent of the individual is obtained.

With the development of extensive electronic commerce networks, this issue has a commercial security dimension as well. Encryption technology is essential to electronic commerce. Transactions will not be initiated unless people are confident that personal and financial information is protected from unauthorised interception. Heavy-handed attempts to ban strong encryption techniques will compromise commercial security, discouraging online service industries (particularly in the financial sector) from adopting Australia as a domicile. This would result in a substantial economic loss to the country.

An inquiry into the extent of information gathering in the public and private sectors, current administrative and regulatory regimes for protection of privacy, and the need for reform will be launched by the Coalition.

This inquiry will present arguments and options to a Coalition Government on privacy policies which will strike a balance between the legitimate interests of public and commercial organisations on the one hand, and the legitimate rights of individuals on the other.

The IPTF will also be required to present options for the implementation of open encryption standards which address commercial needs. The recently released European Union Privacy Directive, which regulates trans-national data flows, has made it imperative that Australia's privacy legislation is updated before our access to overseas information resources is curtailed.

The results of these inquiries will provide input to the deliberations of the Online Government Council on the issue of privacy. In particular, the merits of a national Privacy Code of Practice, binding both public and private sectors will be considered by the Council.

The requirements of security agencies to monitor network traffic are a particularly difficult problem. The rights of private individuals to encrypt messages and commercial transactions have been the subject of heated debate in the United States. The Coalition, with its strong pro-privacy bias, takes the view that the onus is on security agencies to demonstrate that the benefits of mandating "crackable" codes (as has been attempted in the USA with the "Clipper" chip technology) outweigh the social and economic consequences of the loss of personal privacy and commercial security that this would entail.

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