Published 15 May 2024
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) continues to regulate information access and privacy rights in Australia. Our important regulatory work in the digital environment will be supplemented with an additional $5.6 million in funding in 2024–25 to ensure a robust regulatory approach to support the Australian Government’s Digital ID initiative.
This budgetary enhancement partially offsets the impact of the 2024–25 Federal Budget on the OAIC with terminating funding measures at the end of the current financial year. This equates to approximately $11 million of funding terminating. These funds were allocated to the OAIC to allow it to undertake privacy regulatory functions which will continue, including in relation to social media and online platforms, and to investigate major data breaches such as the Optus data breach.
Going forward, the OAIC will work to inform and implement the Government’s stated commitment to Australia’s Privacy Act reform. Taking into account the support that this initiative will require, the OAIC will be working with the Government to ensure stable and sustainable funding to achieve our purpose of promoting and upholding privacy and information access rights.
