Website age verification dropped, business registers modernisation program dumped after spending billions, Centrelink bad, furore at the OAIC, fixes for the gig economy, and more.
Here’s what I’ve noticed since the previous edition on 25 August.
- The Australian government has released its response to the eSafety Commissioner’s Roadmap for Age Verification on websites, which they’d received in March. The commissioner has welcomed the response, because of course she has. The result? Australia will not force adult websites to bring in age verification due to privacy and security concerns. Or as the Ninefax papers put it, ‘Kicked down the road’: Australians to wait for porn passport.
- “Australian National Audit Office says nearly one in five payments to [Centrelink] recipients are wrong despite Services Australia giving itself close to full marks.” Do enjoy the full ANAO report.
- The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission posted its Account Takeover Warrant Annual Report to Minister for their last financial year. Short answer: They didn’t use these powers at all. I don’t think we know about the other agencies yet.
- “Information and privacy commissioner Angelene Falk has three weeks to respond to an explosive 18-page statement from former colleague Leo Hardiman delivered at an FoI parliamentary committee,” reports The Mandarin.
- Treasury released the final report of the Review of the Modernising Business Registers Program. The result? Labor dumps attempt to modernise business records after $2bn budget blowout.
- There’s also a new consultation, Screen scraping – policy and regulatory implications. Submissions close 25 October.
- Another consultation: “Public consultation has begun for a third National Plan to promote open government and transparency, as part of Australia’s membership to the Open Government Partnership,” says The Mandarin. And here’s the survey, which closes in just three days on 3 September? WTF? It needed cookies to be set to do the survey so I haven’t looked more closely yet.
- The Australian Digital Health Agency has launched a project to integrate aged care and health records.
- Australians may pay ‘tiny bit extra’ on pizza delivery as government announces new gig economy rules.
- “The federal government wants to be more ‘present’ in shaping the ‘global technology future’ — including the internet — than it has been in previous years,” reports iTnews. I would like to note that you’re either “present” or you’re not.
- And finally, a handy reference (perhaps) from PM&C, Abbreviations and acronyms for groups or topics. “The following terms are abbreviations and acronyms representing groups or topics currently in use within the Department,” they explain.
Please let me know if I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow.
Parliament returns this coming Monday 4 September, so there should be plenty next week. Indeed we already have the draft legislative programs for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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[Photo: Australia’s eSafety Commission, Julie Inman Grant.]