Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697632512715.pdf (Australia)
Page 177 Treasury Legislation Amendment (Unclaimed Money and Other Measures) Bill 2012 Introduced into the House of Representatives on 28 October 2012; passed both Houses on 29 November 2012 Portfolio: Treasury PJCHR comments: Report 7/12, tabled on 28 November 2013 Ministerial response dated: 27 February 2013 Summary of committee view The committee thanks the Treasurer for his response and notes that the bill 3.1 has already been passed by the Parliament.
3.2 The committee considers that the reduction in the period of time before funds must be transferred to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) is likely to serve a legitimate objective, namely to protect personal funds from being eroded by fees and charges.

The committee however remains concerned that the absence of adequate privacy safeguards in the procedures for searching for unclaimed moneys may be incompatible with article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The committee suggests that the Treasurer explore options with ASIC to ensure that appropriate privacy barriers are applied to the online databases for searching for unclaimed moneys.

Background 3.3 This bill reduces the period of time for which a person may leave particular types of personal financial accounts without activity before sums standing to the credit of the accounts are required to be paid to the ATO (subject to being reclaimed, with interest, by the owner of the funds).
The sums eligible to be transferred include amounts of up to $2,000 (up from $200); examples of the reduction of time are from seven years to three years for bank accounts, and from three years to one year for superannuation accounts.

The statement of compatibility accompanying the bill stated that the bill did 3.4 not engage any human rights.
In Report 7/12, the committee noted that the bill engaged the right to 3.5 privacy in article 17 of the ICCPR and sought clarification from the Treasurer on: (a) the basis for determining that the significant reduction in the time which must elapse before funds are required to be transferred is a proportionate means of achieving the objectives pursued by the bill; and (b) whether the procedures for identifying lost or unclaimed funds and in particular the availability of personal seeking their return, Page 178 information online, engage the right to privacy of individual account holders and whether the procedures involve a permissible limitation on the enjoyment of that right.
3.6 The Treasurer’s response is attached.

Committee’s response 3.7 The committee does not accept the Treasurer’s arguments that these measures do not engage the right to privacy as they appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the scope of the right to privacy in article 17 of the ICCPR.
3.8 The committee reiterates its view that a person’s operation of a personal financial account falls with the area of the person’s private life, guaranteed by article 17 of the ICCPR, because it relates to the person’s personal property.

Accordingly, a person’s right to privacy is engaged by an externally imposed requirement that balances in an account owned by them be transferred to the ATO after a specified (and now reduced) period of time.
3.9 The committee accepts that the bill has not introduced any specific changes to the publication requirements for unclaimed moneys.

However, the bill expands the scope of the current scheme and will operate in the context of the existing framework, which includes unrestricted public access to an online database for unclaimed moneys.
As the committee has previously noted, any person may search under any name and if there is a record under that the name, the database will display the full name of the account holder, the amount in the account, the address of the person or the institution, and the name of the institution at which the account was held.

An understanding of the privacy implications of these existing processes is therefore relevant to an assessment of the compatibility of the bill with human rights.
The committee has consistently taken the view that its starting point is whether the legislation could be applied in ways which would breach human rights.

3.10 Given that the bill engages and limits the right to privacy, the key issue is whether the limitation is reasonable, necessary and proportionate to a legitimate objective.

The committee considers that the objective of preserving a person’s funds from being eroded by fees and charges is a legitimate objective.
The removal of funds to the ATO after a shorter period of time and the requirement to pay interest on balances would have the effect of preserving balances.

3.11 The committee is however concerned that the lack of privacy safeguards in the procedures for identifying unclaimed funds, in particular the availability of detailed personal information online risks being incompatible with article 17 of the ICCPR.
The committee notes that the fact that the publication requirement is ‘a long standing feature of Australia’s unclaimed moneys regime’ is not in itself an argument for compatibility with Australia’s international human rights obligations.

It is not apparent to the committee as to why it is necessary to make such detailed personal information freely available to anyone who chooses to use the database.
In comparison, persons who are searching for lost superannuation funds must first register and provide their TFN before personal information is released to them.

The committee notes that the bill has already been passed by the 3.12 Parliament.

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