PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms AMBIHAIPAHAR (Barton) (17:57): I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Deakin on strengthening Australia's privacy protections. Privacy is not an abstract issue. It is about whether Australians can go about their daily lives confident that their identity, personal information and movements will not be exploited without their knowledge or consent.
It's about dignity. It's about security and giving people genuine control in a fast-changing digital world. I know how important these protections are to the people of Barton, and I thank the residents who have contacted my electorate office to share their concerns.
Those concerns range from the use of AI-enabled smart glasses and other wearable devices to identity-based scams to the excessive collection of personal information. In our local community we have seen scammers particularly target older and vulnerable Chinese residents through identity traps, false threats, and deceptive emails and text messages. In response, I partnered with St George Police Area Command, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and CASS to deliver an anti-scam forum.
The aim was very practical: to help residents recognise warning signs, protect their personal information and avoid falling victim in the future. We were pretty much blown away by the number of people who wanted to attend and who were seeking in-language advice on the traps that they had seen themselves or had seen their friends fall a victim to. Community education matters, and I'm happy to play a small role in delivering it.
But we also need legislative reform. Governments, businesses and digital platforms must build stronger protections into the systems Australians rely on every single day. That is why I welcome the government's introduction of IDLock, a new digital identity protection service that will be available securely through myGov.
IDLock will enable Australians to block, unblock and monitor the use of eligible identity documents through a document verification service. It's designed to help prevent compromised documents from being used fraudulently and to give people greater control before harm occurs, not simply assist after the damage has been done. The proposed privacy reforms also include a right to erasure for personal information held by large digital platforms.
In practical terms, this would allow Australians to ask those platforms to destroy their personal information, and that matters when social media and search platforms can retain detailed profiles of our interests, behaviour and online activity long after we've forgotten what we shared. The reforms would also establish stronger and more meaningful standards for consent.
Consent should be voluntary, informed, specific and unambiguous, not buried in pages of terms and conditions or extracted through a take-it-or-leave-it approach. Australians should understand what they are agreeing to and have a genuine option to say no. Importantly, the reforms would stop businesses trading in personal information without clear permission.
Shopping habits, online interests and location data should not be bought and sold behind Australians' backs. The proposed fair and reasonable test would also require organisations to justify why they collect and use information, rather than gathering more data simply because technology allows them to do so. At a time when many Australians feel that surveillance is all around them and that private information can be reduced to a dollar figure, these reforms are both practical and very much principled.
They respond to immediate threats from scams, identity crime, data breaches and emerging technologies, while affirming a basic standard that personal information belongs first and foremost to the person it describes. Australians should not have to surrender their privacy to participate in modern life. They should be able to use digital services, walk down the street, shop online and communicate with their family without really wondering who is collecting their information, how it would be used or who might actually profit from it.
Our government will continue to put the digital safety of individuals ahead of unchecked profits, opaque data harvesting and the interests of those who record or track people without meaningful consent. I commend the motion.