Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Jobs and Innovation (Senator Cash) to a question without notice asked by Senator Steele-John today relating to the protection of personal information.

In the wake of the revelations over the weekend regarding Cambridge Analytica and the misuse of data of over 50 million people via Facebook, Australian digital rights organisations, including Electronic Frontiers, Future Wise, the Australian Privacy Foundation and Digital Rights Watch, have released a joint media statement in which they noted:

Australian governments are pushing to collect more and more data on Australians, and to link it with larger and larger datasets. Australians must be confident that the custodians of our data will look after our best interests, proactively, and with due care and skill. We must know that our data is not being collected merely for narrow, self-interested reasons. We must be sure that this data is not being shared without our informed consent.

The media statement goes on to say:

These should be simple questions for any government or political party to answer. We look forward to seeing how trustworthy they really are.

This brings me to the questions I put to a shockingly underbriefed Minister Cash earlier today. Why do the Liberal and Labor parties believe that these privacy exemptions for political purposes are appropriate? Why should Australians trust the Liberal or Labor parties with their data when those parties collude to exempt themselves from privacy protections that apply to other organisations, and why do the Labor and Liberal parties want or need the power to exploit or misuse the data of their constituents?

The current Privacy Commissioner believes that the exemption should be reconsidered to determine whether it is appropriate, given that the data environment has significantly changed in the last 18 years. But even the Privacy Commissioner in 2000 did not think that the exemption for political organisations were appropriate at the time. Additionally, and following a comprehensive review, the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended the removal of political exemption from the Privacy Act in 2008.

Australians have a right to privacy. This right applies online and offline. They have a right to know why their personal information is being collected, how it will be used and who it will be disclosed to. They have a right to ask to access it for their personal information, and they have the right to make a complaint about an entity covered by the Privacy Act if they believe their personal information—and this is critical—has been mishandled. These are the protections that the Labor and Liberal parties believe that they should be exempt from. Shame!

The Australian Greens believe in upholding human rights, which apply online and offline. We believe that political bodies should not have an exemption under the Privacy Act. And, we believe, now more than ever, that there is a need for a digital rights commissioner who will serve as an advocate both in response to existing laws and proactively as new laws are proposed. The commissioner would be the advocate for the digital rights of individuals, and object to such offensive, self-serving legislation as was created here in the first place.

Question agreed to.