PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr SMALL (Forrest—Opposition Whip) (18:02): It is a pleasure to be here on a Monday night to discuss this important issue. I reflect on the member for McPherson's contribution on the importance of privacy to his constituents, and so it is with mine. Australians rightly expect that their personal information will be treated with care and properly protected.
I think that is even more so in times where the unfortunate reports of data hacks and digital disruption are more and more frequent and, indeed, more and more damaging because of the sensitive information that is held en masse by so many different actors across the digital economy. At the outset, I do need to affirm that we do support strengthening privacy protections and changing the law to ensure that it keeps pace with rapid technological change.
On that, the government has released this exposure draft of further Privacy Act reforms, and what we've come to realise with the Albanese government is that the devil is usually—in fact, it is always—in the detail. So where those concerns are raised by businesses, industry bodies, privacy experts and consumers, we will want to see those concerns reflected and ameliorated in the legislation that ultimately goes through this place.
We will not be giving a blank cheque to the Labor Party simply because it claims to have extensively consulted on these reforms. Let's not forget that the exposure draft was released on 31 August and submissions closed on 18 September, giving stakeholders less than three weeks to work through what is a substantial and technically complex package. It's a very short consultation period when you consider the very significant new legal, regulatory and compliance obligations that the legislation might well impose on Australian businesses.
The context is that small businesses in Australia are going to the wall at a record rate. They are drowning in red tape, regulation and economic headwinds from high inflation, higher interest rates and the loss of discretionary spending through the economy. So, whilst the Labor government is congratulating itself on this extensive consultation, we are talking to small business and family business owners across the economy who are doing it very, very tough indeed.
It must be a consideration every time the bells ring in this place that another business doesn't die. We expect the government to be upfront about the cost of these reforms for small and family businesses, because those compliance costs, the additional administrative burden and indeed the potential legal uncertainty are really, really important when you consider that those small businesses are already dealing with rising costs and increasing regulatory complexity, in no small part due to the 400 new laws this government has passed and the introduction of things like scope 3 climate reporting.
At the end of the day, these businesses are being asked to endure ever-increasing compliance burdens, and, at this stage, the legislation before us for privacy law reform doesn't indicate a clear understanding of the impact on those businesses. So before parliament is asked to pass these laws or, indeed, any other, the government should be providing a clear assessment of the likely costs and the implementation requirements for all stakeholders.
Small businesses, family businesses and medium-sized businesses shouldn't be dragged into a more complex and more expensive privacy regime because of the data practices controlled by large third-party platforms or technology providers. We've got to target these sorts of reforms at the cause of these sorts of issues: those data leaks and the loss of confidence that Australian consumers have in the protection of their privacy and their personal information.
The responsibility, therefore, should sit with the businesses that actually collect, control, analyse and very often commercialise that personal information, rather than the poor souls who are just trying to keep their heads above water in so many sectors of our economy. The coalition is also concerned that the exposure draft doesn't establish specific protections governing the sorts of technologies like smart glasses or other wearable technologies.
Australians need—and, I think, expect—clear rules about their use, particularly in places where people ought to expect privacy. And, of course, it is unfortunate that time and time again we see the exploitation of our society's most vulnerable where they lack those protections.