Privacy Reform – Consultation on Exposure Draft legislation

The Attorney-General’s Department is covered by the Privacy Act 1988, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). The APPs set out standards, rights and obligations regarding the handling and management of personal information. This includes how we collect, store, use, disclose, quality assure and secure personal information, as well as your rights to access or correct your personal information.

Further information about the collection of your personal information is provided below.

Public consultation – Exposure Draft Privacy Amendment (Personal Data Protection) Bill 2026

The Attorney-General’s Department (the department) is collecting some of your personal information to support the review of submissions and feedback on the Exposure Draft Privacy Amendment (Personal Data Protection) Bill 2026. The privacy and security of your personal information is important to us and protected by law.

The consultation is being undertaken by officers of the department. Any personal or sensitive information you choose to provide may be shared with officers of the department for the purposes of conducting the consultation and reviewing submissions.

How your personal information will be collected

• If you participate in the consultation by providing a written submission, you do not need to provide any personal or sensitive information. If you do, this will be on a voluntary basis.
• If you email the department, the department will have a record of your email address, and if you choose to provide it, your name.
• We request that you do not provide unnecessary personal information or sensitive information unless it is directly relevant to your submission. If you provide personal or sensitive information about a third party, we will not publish this without the consent of the third party, even if you have provided your consent for your submission to be published.

If we don’t collect your personal information

If we don’t collect your personal information, it may affect our ability to get in touch, including our ability to contact you to clarify any aspect of the feedback you provide in the consultation.

If you choose not to provide your name or use a pseudonym, we may not be able to provide you access to information or records that you provide us as part of the consultation.

How your personal information will be used

We may use your personal information to consult with you, including to contact you if we have questions about your feedback, or would like to gain further information to:

• analyse submissions, including using AI tools, received through the consultation process
• inform what the government considers when deciding on reforms to strengthen privacy protections
• prepare consultation summaries, reports or briefing materials.

Where practical, personal information will be de-identified before it is included in reports, summaries or other consultation outputs.

Who your personal information may be disclosed to

• If you include personal information in a written submission and provide consent to publish that submission, then your personal information may be published. For example, if you put your name on the title page of the submission or include personal information in the text of your submission.
• Your submission, including any personal information you choose to provide, will be disclosed to officers of the department who are involved in the review of submissions.
• If your submission contains personal information or sensitive information about another individual, the department may de-identify or redact that information before using, sharing or publishing the submission.
• If you provide personal or sensitive information about a third party, we will not publish this without the consent of the third party, even if you have provided your consent for your submission to be published.

If we identify any other reasons to disclose your personal information, we will seek your written consent before doing so.

Further information

The department’s Privacy Policy explains how the department handles and protects the information provided by you. Our Privacy Policy also explains how you can request access to or correct the personal information we hold about you, and who to contact if you have a privacy enquiry or complaint. If you require a hard copy of our Privacy Policy, please contact the Privacy Officer at privacy@ag.gov.au.

If you have any questions about this consultation or this Privacy Collection Notice, please contact PrivacyReform@ag.gov.au.