The Freedom of Information Amendment (New Arrangements) Bill 2014 has been introduced into the Australian Parliament.
If the Bill is passed, from 1 January 2015 the functions of the Privacy Act will be undertaken by the Australian Privacy Commissioner. This includes the handling of privacy complaints, undertaking investigations and other regulatory activities, and the provision of guidance and advice on privacy to individuals, organisations and agencies.
The Bill will repeal the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 including abolition of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and transfer its FOI functions to the Attorney‑General’s Department (AGD) (advice, guidelines, annual reporting), the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) (merits review) and the Commonwealth Ombudsman (Ombudsman) (complaints).
The OAIC will continue to exercise all its privacy functions (including complaint handling) until 31 December 2014. After that date, privacy matters will be handled by the Australian Privacy Commissioner.
