The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) received Royal Assent on 10 December 2024.
These changes have been referred to as the “Tranche 1” of amendments to Australia’s privacy laws, with the majority of the changes taking effect on 11 December 2024.
In 2023, the Australian Government released the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy.
9 October 2024 marked the latest in a series of legislative reforms in pursuit of that strategy, as the Cyber Security Legislative Package 2024 (Package) was introduced to Parliament. The Package has been referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for inquiry and report.
The first phase of the Government’s proposed implementation of long-anticipated reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) was tabled in Parliament on 12 September 2024. The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (“Bill”) comes two years after the Attorney-General Department’s report (“Review”) proposed 116 recommendations to reform the Privacy Act. The Government’s response to the Review, in September 2023 (“Response”), “agreed” 38 proposals to be implemented first and this Bill addresses 23 of those proposals.
The Australian Government has introduced a raft of new digital legislation, including to combat misinformation and disinformation, and hate speech. It has also announced plans for minimum age requirements for social media.
On 13 September 2024, the Australian Government opened public consultation on the proposed Scams Prevention Framework. The Scams Prevention Framework introduces economy-wide reforms designed to combat scams and enhance consumer protections across multiple sectors including banking, telecommunications and digital platform services. Under the proposed regime, regulated entities in designated sectors will be required to take positive steps to detect, prevent and disrupt scams, with significant civil penalties for non-compliance.
On 26 July 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) updated the Guidelines on Licensing for Payment Service Providers (PS-G01), which became effective on 26 August 2024. These changes are applicable to current and future Standard Payment Institutions (SPIs) and Major Payment Institutions under the Payment Services Act (PSA).
The updates can be divided into those that relate to (i) the application process for a new MPI or SPI license or a variation of an existing license under the PSA; and (ii) those that relate to ongoing business conduct.
On 29 April 2024, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts opened public consultation as part of the ongoing independent statutory review (“Review”) of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (“Act”) with the release of an Issues Paper (“Issues Paper”). Public consultation will close on 21 June 2024, with the final report of the Review expected to be provided to Government by 31 October 2024.
On 4 April 2024, the Minister for Communications opened consultation on significant and comprehensive stage two reforms to the National Classification Scheme (“Scheme”). The Scheme is comprised of a number of laws and regulatory instruments – together, operating as a regulatory framework for classifying films, certain publications and computer games under cooperative arrangements between the Commonwealth, and the States and Territories. In addition, the Scheme directly underpins the online content scheme in Part 9 of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (“OSA” ) and informs elements of the broadcast television self-classification requirements in place under industry codes of practice under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth).
On 26 March 2024, the Australian Senate resolved to establish the Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (“Committee”) to inquire into and report on the opportunities and impacts arising out of the adoption of AI technologies in Australia.
The Committee’s inquiry provides an important opportunity for Australian companies to shape the future direction of Australia’s AI-related regulatory reforms as the Government continues to formulate its position on the regulation of AI.
On 13 February 2024, the Minister for Communications announced the Terms of Reference for the upcoming independent review into the operation of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (OSA). For more information about other recent developments in the Australian online safety roll-out.
The Review is required by section 239A of the OSA, and will examine the effectiveness of the OSA, and consider whether additional protections are needed to prevent the publication and spread of harmful online material.