The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) today released its regulatory action priorities for 2025-26, outlining the areas the agency will be focusing its regulatory efforts on over this year and into the next.
"In announcing our priorities, we want to ensure that the community is aware of the harms that we are focused on and why they are important. We also want to signal to industry and government the practices that they should focus on to ensure that they are upholding their obligations," Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said.
"The OAIC is focusing its resources on the things that matter most and on the regulatory problems that pose the most harm. Through this approach we can create the right framework to deliver innovation and support economic and productivity gains.
"Our vision is to increase public trust and confidence in the protection of personal information and access to government-held information. We recognise that community confidence and trust will contribute to a healthy democracy and positively impact the economy."
The OAIC's four areas for regulatory focus (link to website) in 2025–26 are:
Rebalancing power and information asymmetries
The OAIC will focus on sectors and technologies that compromise rights and create power and information imbalances including:
- the rental and property, credit reporting and data brokerage, sectors
- advertising technology (Ad tech) such as pixel tracking
- practices that erode information access and privacy rights in the application of artificial intelligence
- excessive collection and retention of personal information
- systemic failures to enable timely access to government information
Rights preservation in new and emerging technologies
The OAIC will protect and uphold privacy and information access rights when dealing with new and emerging technologies with high impact, including:
- facial recognition technology and forms of biometric scanning
- new surveillance technologies such as location data tracking in apps, cars and other devices
- the preservation of both privacy and information access rights in government use of artificial intelligence and automated decision making.
Strengthening the information governance of the Australian Public Service
The OAIC will strengthen information governance and integrity in the Australian Public Service through:
- highlighting areas where information handling practices are inadequate and data is not managed appropriately through its life cycle, including how requests for access under the FOI Act and Privacy Acts are managed.
- providing guidance to elevate administrative decision-making in the Australian Public Sector
- monitoring the use of messaging apps by government agencies
- identifying government integrity risks arising from information management practices that impact on trust in government, including poor disclosure practices.
Ensuring timely access to government information
The OAIC will support the timely release of government information in line with the objects of the Freedom of Information Act by:
- progressing complaint investigations or monitoring activities and using data to highlight systemic underperformance by individual agencies, particularly in relation to agencies' refusal rates, compliance with statutory timeframes, disclosure log practices and information publication scheme compliance.
Freedom of Information Commissioner Toni Pirani said: "Access to information promotes government transparency and is essential to our democratic system. Our regulatory action priorities focus on supporting agencies to provide timely access to government information. "
Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind said: "Opaque and unfair extraction and use of personal information undermines consumer trust and confidence, and may ultimately impede participation in the digital economy and the adoption of new technologies. By focusing on the enforcement of privacy protections, particularly in the online environment, we can rebalance the playing field for consumers and, re-empower online users."
