Portfolio — 27 March 2026

The Attorney-General used a 27 March media release to advance two distinct portfolio actions: a judicial appointment in regional Queensland and a significant forthcoming regulatory instrument targeting children's online privacy.

On the judicial front, the Attorney-General welcomed His Honour Justice Corey Jenkins to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia at its Townsville registry, framing the appointment as evidence that the rule of law reaches all regions of the country [TA-260327-attorn-566946defb4f]. Justice Jenkins brings a career spanning work as an independent children's lawyer, a family lawyer at Legal Aid Queensland, and a senior judicial registrar role, with long-standing ties to North Queensland — a background the Attorney-General positioned as directly suited to the community the registry serves.

The more consequential policy signal in the release is the impending publication of draft recommendations for a Children's Online Privacy Code [TA-260327-attorn-566946defb4f]. The Attorney-General announced the draft will be released the following week, with the code designed to establish binding rules on how technology companies collect, use and disclose children's personal information, backed by fines in the tens of millions of dollars for non-compliance.

The Attorney-General explicitly framed the code as a companion measure to the existing ban on social media access for under-16s, positioning the two instruments together as a coherent regulatory architecture around child safety online [TA-260327-attorn-566946defb4f]. The stated rationale for targeting minors rather than the general population was children's particular vulnerability to data collection and their limited capacity to control how their information is disclosed — with the Attorney-General noting that technology platforms have outpaced existing regulatory settings.

The privacy code announcement is the more policy-dense item here. The combination of enforceable penalties and the explicit link to the under-16 social media ban signals that the government is building out a multi-instrument framework for child online safety rather than treating the age restriction as a standalone measure. Policy staff should note the draft recommendations will be available shortly, providing the first concrete detail on how the code's obligations will be structured.