Examples of legislated authorisation

Example 1: Taxation Administration Act 1953

Under Section 355-65 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) can provide identifiable information to the Australian Statistician (Australian Bureau of Statistics) for the purpose of administering the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

The ATO can provide information to other organisations, but this is for other purposes (rather than those in scope of the Commonwealth arrangements for data integration) such as administering laws, providing data to an Australian government agency to prevent or lessen serious threats to life and safety, or for purposes related to corporate regulation.

In this example, legislated authority exists because the integrating authority (ABS) is explicitly named in the legislation under which the data was collected (Taxation Administration Act 1953) as an agency which can access and use the identifiable data for statistical and research purposes.

Example 2: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 (Cth)

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 provides for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to release health and welfare-related data for research purposes, with the approval of the AIHW Ethics Committee, under certain terms and conditions. However, the AIHW is also subject to the Privacy Act 1988, which restricts the AIHW’s ability to release identifiable data about living individuals. The combined effect of these Acts is that the AIHW may make health data about living individuals available for research with the approval of the AIHW Ethics Committee, provided certain terms are met. Release of identifiable welfare data may only be approved by the AIHW Ethics Committee in respect of deceased individuals.

In this example, legislated authority exists for the data custodian to release the data to an integrating authority because the legislation under which the data was collected provides for this type of agency or body to access and use identifiable data for statistical and research purposes.

Note: the information about these pieces of legislation is correct as at August 2011. As these are provided as illustrative examples, the text will not necessarily be updated if the legislation changes.

Note: the information about these pieces of legislation is correct as at August 2011. As these are provided as illustrative examples, the text will not necessarily be updated if the legislation changes.

For more information about the authorisation to release identifiable data see: