- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jaclyn Jaeger2022-11-14T19:27:00
The Australian government is weighing stringent new privacy reforms that would establish among the steepest penalty regimes in the world for serious or repeated breaches.
On Oct. 26, Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus brought forth before parliament the “Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022,” proposing significant amendments to the country’s 1988 Privacy Act. On Nov. 9, the bill passed the House of Representatives without amendment and moved to the Senate. The Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs will review the bill and is scheduled to issue its report Nov. 22.
The most substantial change would increase maximum civil penalties for “serious or repeated” breaches of privacy from the current AUD$2.22 million (U.S. $1.5 million) cap to an amount not more than the greater of AUD$50 million (U.S. $33.5 million); three times the benefit obtained by the company; or, if a court cannot determine the value of the benefit obtained, 30 percent of a company’s domestic turnover in the relevant period.
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