✦ Plain-English Summary

Privacy Amendment (Public Health Contact Information) 2020

What it does

This law temporarily changes Australia's privacy rules to let health authorities access contact information collected through the COVIDSafe app during the COVID-19 pandemic. It creates special legal permission for government health departments to store and use data from the app for contact tracing purposes, which would normally breach privacy law.

Why it matters

Without this change, the privacy protections in Australian law would technically prevent health authorities from using the contact data people volunteered through COVIDSafe. This law essentially creates a legal loophole so that data can actually be used if there's a public health emergency. It's about making the app legally workable during a crisis.

Key details

• The COVIDSafe app: The law specifically mentions an app called COVIDSafe created by the Commonwealth for contact tracing during COVID-19
• Time limit: Most of these special privacy rules automatically expire 90 days after a formal determination is made (likely when the emergency ends), with full removal by Parliament after 90 days
• Who controls the data: The Health Department can act as the "data store administrator" unless another agency is specifically named to handle it instead

Official Description

Amends the Privacy Act 1988 to: incorporate into primary legislation the provisions of the Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) (Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) (Emergency Requirements—Public Health Contact Information) Determination 2020 to provide privacy protections for users of, and data collected by, the COVIDSafe app; and introduce additional privacy protections. Also repeals the Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) (Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) (Emergency Requirements—Public Health Contact Information) Determination 2020; and provides for the future repeal of certain definitions and Part VIIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 .

Committee Referrals

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.