The Attorney General’s Department is currently undertaking a review of the Privacy Act 1988. Several of the proposals for change to the Act, including introducing the concept of anonymisation, have implications for research, but the Discussion Paper does not directly include the way the Privacy Act affects the use of information for research purposes.
Research Australia’s submission highlights these areas and proposes that an expert group be formed specifically to work on the redevelopment of the NHMRC guidelines in parallel with drafting of proposed amendments to the Act.
Research Australia’s submission is available here.
The Review has been completed and the findings are expected to be released in the first half of 2023.