AGY-6404 | Information and Privacy Commission

Full description

The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) was established as an independent Statutory Authority by the Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Act 2010 (Act No 71, 2010), which was assented to on 28 September 2010, and proclaimed to commence on 1 January 2011. The Act also abolished Privacy NSW and the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) as legal entities, along with the Privacy Advisory Committee. (1)

The information Commissioner was the head of the Commission and as such was responsible for the management of staff, and budgets. (2)

The role of the Commission was to provide consistent information and advice, and coordinated training for agencies and individuals on privacy and information access matters (3) and ensure the objectives of the NSW information access and privacy legislation were achieved by promoting and educating the community and agencies about people privacy and information access rights under the legislation; assisting government, business and the public to understand and use the legislation; reviewing agency performance and decisions; investigation and conciliating complaints; providing feedback about the legislation and developments in law and technology relevant to the legislation. (4)

The Commission brought together two functions: the right to government Information functions, in particular the operation of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Act No.52, 2009) (GIPA) and review of Decisions made by agencies and ministers under that Act; Privacy functions conferred by the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (Act No.133, 1998) (PIPP), and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (Act No.71, 2002) (HRIP). (5)

The Commission was independent of other government agencies, and reported directly to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and the Police Integrity Commission which exercised certain oversight functions over both the privacy and access jurisdictions. However the Committee could not investigate a matter relating to particular conduct; reconsider a decision to investigate, not to investigate or to discontinue investigation of a particular complaint or matter of conduct, or reconsider the findings, recommendations, determinations or other decision the information Commissioner or the Privacy Commissioner has made in relation to a particular investigation. (6)

The Information Commissioner reported to the NSW Parliament on the operation of the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 (Act No.53, 2009) (GIIC) and the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Act No.52, 2009). The Privacy Commissioner reported to the NSW Parliament on the operation of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (Act No.133, 1998); and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (Act No.71, 2002). (7)

The Information Commissioner was established as the Chairperson of the NSW Information and Privacy Advisory Committee, which replaced the former Privacy Advisory Committee, under Part 7 of the Act. The committee also consisted of the Privacy Commissioner and the following part time members, appointed by the Governor: two nominees of the Minister who were Senior Officers of public sector agencies; four nominees of the Minister based on their special knowledge of or interest in matters affecting access to government information or the privacy of persons.

The functions of the committee were: to advise on matters relevant to the Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner's functions; to advise the Minister on such matter as may be referred to it by the Minister. (8)

On 1 March 2013 the first members of the Committee were appointed. The members of the Committee including the chairperson, and Privacy Commissioner were: Ms Teresa Corbin, Ms Angela Green, Mr Doug Peiffer, and Mr Peter Timmins (9). By 18 March 2013, the proposed public sector members were Mr William Murphy, Department of Finance and Service, and Ms Sonja Stewart, Public Service Commission. (10)

By June 2011, the Commission consisted of the following units: Casework and Compliance; Policy and Good Practice; Business Systems and Privacy Services. This structure was an adaption of the organisational structures of the former agencies OIC and Privacy NSW. The Privacy Services Manager reported to the Principal Privacy Officer, and the Privacy Commissioner, while the Managers from the other units reported to the Information Commissioner. (11)

The Policy and Good Practice Team's functions included: promoting public awareness of the new right to information laws; providing information, support, advice, assistance and training to agencies and the general public to encourage and facilitate a new culture of open government; monitoring, reviewing and reporting on the functioning of the GIPA Act and the GIIC Act; monitoring, researching and reporting on systemic inadequacies in the disclosure of government information.

The Casework and Compliance Team's functions included: reviewing decisions of agencies under Part 5, Division 3 of the GIPA Act; handling complaints made under section 17 of the GIIC Act; making representations about GIPA matter before the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT); conducting investigations. (12)

The Business Services Team's functions included: provision of business support; investment of corporate resources to address such as budgeting, payroll services technology; to facilitate the transition of staff and resources to the newly merged organisation. (13)

The Privacy Services Team's functions included: researching significant developments in policy, law and technology which could have an impact on privacy; making submissions, reports and recommendation to agencies and authorities; answering inquiries and advising people of possible ways to address breaches of privacy; investigation of complaints and conciliate them where possible; providing written and verbal guidance on privacy matter to departmental heads and ministers on complex compliance issues arising under privacy laws. (14)

By mid-2013, the Commission had been restructured following an organisational review at the end of 2012. The review found that many of the service areas were already working across both Privacy and Information access but the casework teams were still working separately. The new structure featured integrated teams handling investigation and review, performance reporting and projects, communications and corporate affairs, and business services and business systems. The new structure also included an Executive Director, who also filled the role of Chief Audit Executive. (15)

Amendments to the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) were passed in Parliament on 21 November and came into effect on 28 November 2018. The amendments impacted the responsibilities of agencies under the GIPA Act, and how citizens could expect their applications to be processed and progressed by the Information and Privacy Commission. (16)

The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation was abolished on 1 July 2019. Its staff were transferred to the new Department of Customer Service. (17) This change of cluster resulted in a change to the ministers responsible for the carriage of the information and privacy legislation. The Minister for Customer Service, the NSW Attorney General, and the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence shared responsibility. (18)

Endnotes
1. Commencement Proclamation under the Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Act 2010 (Act No.71, 2010), published NSW Legislation Website (2010-657), 3 December 2010 ; The Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Bill 2010, Explanatory Note, pp.1-5 from the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office Website, Legislation http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/bills/docref/504e549c-6f47-c5bc-a34b-f8487d6acac3 (accessed 04/09/2013); Speaker Mr Barry Collier, Member for Miranda, ‘Agreement in Principle’ Speech regarding the Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Bill 2010, Hansard and Papers, Legislative Assembly, 24 June 2010, p.24749 from the Parliament of New South Wales Website http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20100624006?open&refNavID=HA4_1 (accessed 4 September 2013); The Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Act 2010, Schedule 1, Clauses Amendment of Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (Act No.133, 1998), [3]-[6], [11]-[21], [23], Schedule 2, Amendment of Government Information. (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 (Act No.53, 2009), Clause [4], Schedule 3, Amendment of Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Act No.52, 2009), Clause [7], Schedule 4, Amendment of other Acts, Clauses [4.2]-[4.3]; Appropriation Act 2010 (Act No. 43, 2010), s.24, 45; Office of the Commissioner, Annual Report 2009-2010, pp.1, 8, 12, 36; Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2010-2011, pp.3-9, 11, 14-18, 20, 39-42, 55, 58-69, 75-76; Privacy NSW, Annual Report 2009-2010, pp.9, 26-28.
2. Organisational Structure from the Information and Privacy Commission Website http://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/privacy/ipc_orgstructure.html (accessed 5 August 2013); Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2010-2011, p.5.
3. Loc. cit.
4. Ibid., p.9.
5. About the IPC from the Information and Privacy Commission Website http://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/privacy/ipc_aboutus.html (accessed 5 August 2013).
6 Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2010-2011, p.8.
7. Ibid., p.5.
8. The Privacy and Government Information Legislation Amendment Act 2010, Schedule 1, Clause [11] substituting a new section Part 7 (ss. 60-61) into the Principal Act.
9. Media Release, Information and Privacy Commission ‘First members appointed to NSW Information and Privacy Advisory Committee’ 1 March 2013, from the Information and Privacy Commission website http://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/agdbasev7wr/_assets/privacy/m727302l5/ipc_media_release_ipac_first_members_010313.pdf (accessed 5 August 2013).
10. Information and Privacy Commission, Information and Privacy Advisory Committee Charter, Information and Privacy Commission , Sydney, effective 18 March 2013, p.5 from the Information and Privacy Commission website
http://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/agdbasev7wr/_assets/privacy/m727302l5/ipac%20charter.pdf (accessed 22 October 2013).
11. Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2010-2011, p.14; Office of the Information Commissioners Annual Report, 2009-2010, p.10; Privacy NSW, Annual Report 2009-2010, p.12.
12. Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2010-2011, pp.25-26.
13. Ibid., pp.4, 17.
14. Ibid., p.42.
15. Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2012-2013, p.7.
16. Information and Privacy Commission website, GIPA amendments, https://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/information-access/gipa-amendments-2018, (accessed 24 November 2022).
17. Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes-Public Service Agencies) Order 2019 (2019 No 159), cl. 7; NSW Legislation Website 2 April 2019.
18. Information and Privacy Commission, Annual Report 2019-2020, p.21.