Page 3941 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 December 2021
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The bill includes several safeguards to minimise any impacts on a client’s privacy. For example, if a commonwealth entity requests data, the Chief Executive Officer of the commission must be satisfied that the receiving entity will act in accordance with the Australian privacy principles. Additionally, the new exceptions also have limited application to data or information collected from 1 July 2021. Further, the amendment expressly provides that the Chief Executive Officer may only authorise disclosure in accordance with the disclosure guidelines, which I look forward to providing to the Assembly in due course. The guidelines will require that a request for data or information be considered holistically.
The commission must not only consider whether the data request has a legitimate objective but also assess how it will be managed, stored and presented, and address any sensitivities associated with the data. I am confident the guidelines will provide a transparent framework for how data requests are managed and support the commission to only authorise disclosures where it is appropriate to do so.
In terms of promoting an improved regulatory framework and operations of the ACT government and its agencies the parliamentary and governing agreement for the Tenth Assembly commits to:
Ensuring a wholistic approach to government budgets, decision-making and reporting, including consistent, meaningful and measurable strategic and accountability indicators based on wellbeing …
To support the fulfilment of this agreement, the amendment to the Freedom of Information Act will replace the triple bottom line assessment with wellbeing impact assessments. The ACT government is committed to using the ACT wellbeing framework, and the information it provides, to inform government priorities, policies and investment decisions, thereby ensuring the wellbeing and quality of life of Canberrans is prioritised.
Effective embedding of wellbeing in the government’s decision-making framework will require similar treatment of proposals across key decision-making processes. Wellbeing impact assessments provide a consistent way to assess proposals by measuring the impact of each proposal on the wellbeing of our community, environment and institutions.
The assessments were required to be produced for business cases in the 2021-2022 budget and will be a valuable tool for all directorates when developing proposals and undertaking government decision-making. Wellbeing impact assessments will replace the current triple bottom line reporting requirement from 1 January 2022 as part of the legislation’s open-access requirements.
As Minister Cheyne noted, the bill also makes minor amendments to the Liquor Act to improve occupational mobility for those holding an interstate responsible service of alcohol certificate.
This bill will also amend the commencement provisions of the Magistrates Court (Infringement Notices) Amendment Act so that the amendments will now commence
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