The needs of the private sector should be considered secondary to the needs of an individual's right to privacy. The responsibilities of the private sector need to be specified in federal statute to ensure compliance. Self-regulation of this type of information is not appropriate and would do nothing to promote confidence by Australians in this scheme. Rights of Consumers EFA believes that an individual's rights to privacy are the most important principle which should govern any legislation or regulation. The only true measure of the effectiveness of a privacy protection scheme is the confidence that consumers show in it.
Australian citizens do believe they have a right to privacy.
The campaign against the Australia Card is a good example of this. The only true way of implementing an effective privacy scheme is through legislation at a federal level. Strict requirements for all businesses, governments, etc under federal legislation will reduce the incidence of private information being incorrectly used, and provide the confidence to the people it is attempting to protect. The other major factor about not having a federal scheme, and possibly having many state schemes, is the cost of compliance. Under a federal scheme it would be one set of rules to follow.