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Consumer Action has made a submission to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department on proposed regulations for the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protections) Bill. This submission discusses regulations regarding proposed new credit reporting law. Consumer Action has made the following recommendations:

• we do not support the creation of regulations under paragraph (e) in the definition of consumer credit liability information. Creating such regulations would give credit providers access to information that they do not need to assess the credit worthiness of applicants, and that information could then be used for purposes which are not in the spirit of the Bill;
• if firms like Veda Advantage and Dun and Bradstreet are organisations which meet the definition of ‘Credit Reporting Body’ then we recommend that regulations for the definition of Credit Reporting Body at section 6(1) prescribe them as such;
• regulation should be made for subparagraph 6Q(1)(d)(ii) to provide that an overdue amount should be at least $500 before it can be considered ‘default information’;
• regulation should be made for paragraph 6V(2)(b) to provide that a partial monthly payment is considered a monthly payment if:
  • the amount of the payment is within a certain margin of error, perhaps 10 per cent of the full payment amount, and there is nothing to suggest the partial payment is not simply an innocent mistake; or
  • if listing the missed payment would be unfair in the circumstances.
• we suggest principles regarding the listing of schemes of arrangement and hardship applications; and
• we recommend a regulation be made for proposed subsection 6G(6) to clarify that a landlord is not a credit provider.

To read our full submission, click here: Proposed regulations for the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protections) Bill.