Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022 - Commentary on Ministerial Responses [2023] AUSStaCSBSD 44 (8 March 2023)

• Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022
• Privacy75

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Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022

Purpose	This bill seeks to amend the Telecommunications Act 1997 to improve the operation of information disclosure provisions. The bill seeks to amend the record of disclosure requirements by increasing record keeping requirements to enable oversight of underlying laws or warrants which required or authorised a disclosure. In addition, the bill seeks to make two technical amendments to the Telstra Corporation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2021 to ensure that the obligations and measures in the Act will commence as originally intended.
Portfolio	Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
Introduced	House of Representatives on 10 November 2022
Bill status	Before the Senate

Privacy^[75]

2.211 Under Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Telecommunications Act), carriers, carriage service providers and others are prohibited from disclosing certain information, including personal information, except in limited circumstances.^[76] This includes where the use and disclosure of information is:

• made to deal with calls to emergency service numbers;^[77] or

• reasonably necessary to prevent or reduce a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person.^[78]

2.212 The bill would expand these exceptions. As a result, the committee considers that the bill has the potential to trespass on an individual's right to privacy.

2.213 The committee initially scrutinised this bill in Scrutiny Digest 8 of 2022 and requested the minister's advice.^[79] The committee considered the minister's response in Scrutiny Digest 1 of 2023 and requested the minister's further advice as to:

• whether the bill could be amended to explicitly limit who may receive information or a document under subsection 285(1B) or, at a minimum, whether the explanatory memorandum can be updated to clarify this; and

• whether the term 'affairs or personal particulars' can be defined in the Telecommunications Act 1997 or, at a minimum, in the explanatory memorandum, including by providing examples of what may or may not be included in the definition.^[80]

Minister's response^[81]

2.214 The minister advised that information in the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) including storage, transfer, use or disclosure of unlisted information is strictly regulated through the Telecommunications Act, legislative instruments and enforceable industry codes and standards, and in practice information is limited to emergency services.

2.215 The minister further advised that defining the term 'affairs or personal particulars' within the bill would reduce the scope of information to which a disclosure applies, and a general construction of the term is preferred to provide additional flexibility to safeguard and protect types of information that might otherwise not be captured.

2.216 The minister instead undertook to amend the explanatory memorandum to draw attention to the other instruments that constrain the disclosure of information in the IPND and to clarify the types of information covered by the term 'affairs or personal particulars'.

Committee comment

2.217 The committee thanks the minister for this response.

2.218 The committee notes the minister's advice that the explanatory memorandum to the bill will be amended to provide further information to help clarify the limited nature of the disclosure of information in the IPND and examples of what may constitute 'affairs or personal particulars'.

2.219 The committee welcomes the minister's undertaking to update the explanatory memorandum to the bill and makes no further comment on this matter.

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[75] Schedule 1, items 6, 7, 8 and 9, proposed subsection 285(1B) and proposed sections 287 and 300. The committee draws senators' attention to these provisions pursuant to Senate standing order 24(1)(a)(i).

[76] See, for example, the primary use and disclosure offences set out in sections 276 and 277.

[77] Section 285.

[78] Sections 287 (primary use and disclosure) and 300 (secondary use and disclosure).

[79] Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee, Scrutiny Digest 8 of 2022 (30 November 2022) pp. 3-6.

[80] Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee, Scrutiny Digest 1 of 2023 (8 February 2023) pp. 106-109.

[81] The minister responded to the committee's comments in a letter dated 22 February 2023. A copy of the letter is available on the committee's website: see correspondence relating to Scrutiny Digest 2 of 2023 available at: www.aph.gov.au/senate_scrutiny_digest.