House debates
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Telecommunications Amendment (Integrated Public Number Database) Bill 2009
Consideration of Senate Message
Bill returned from the Senate with amendments.
Ordered that the amendments be considered immediately.
Senate’s amendments—
(1) Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (line 15), after “a person”, insert “(the discloser)”.
(2) Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (lines 22 to 28), omit paragraph 285A(1)(c), substitute:
(c) the emergency management person has given the discloser a written notice stating that the disclosure is for the purpose of the information, or the contents of the document, being later used or disclosed for either or both of the following:
(i) for a purpose connected with persons being alerted to an emergency or a likely emergency;
(ii) for the purpose of reasonable testing of whether, in the event of an emergency occurring, persons would be able to be alerted to that emergency.
(3) Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (after line 28), after subsection 285A(1), insert:
(1A) A notice given as mentioned in paragraph (1)(c) may cover one or more disclosures (including each disclosure in a series of disclosures under an arrangement between the discloser and the emergency management person).
(1B) A notice given as mentioned in paragraph (1)(c) is not a legislative instrument.
9:18 am
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I move:
That the amendments be agreed to.
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy introduced amendments in the Senate in relation to the bill yesterday, and these amendments were passed by the Senate. The proposed government amendments will make minor changes to the bill to strengthen the protections on the disclosure of information from the IPND. They will require specified emergency management persons to give a written notice to the discloser of IPND information—currently Telstra, as the IPND manager—stating that they will use or disclose the information only for emergency warning purposes. The written notice approach provided in the proposed government amendment will provide confidence to the IPND manager—Telstra, at the moment—that it may disclose IPND information to a prescribed emergency management person. This greater certainty is likely to speed the release of IPND data as well as to provide greater protection that it is being provided to the right person. This approach will also reduce the need for the IPND manager to expend time verifying the legitimacy of a request for IPND data in an emergency.
The written notice process in the proposed government amendments has been tailored to fit with the existing provisions in the bill and to minimise potential delays to the release of IPND data in an emergency. The proposed government amendments will also add a clause to clarify that a single written notice will be able to cover a series of disclosures. This will allow an emergency management person to receive regular updates of IPND information. This arrangement is similar to arrangements currently in place that allow copies of the IPND to be used for 000 and law enforcement purposes. I commend these government amendments to the House.
9:21 am
Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The opposition supports these amendments and commends the government for embracing these sensible measures to protect against unintended disclosure.
Question agreed to.