The Federal Government has hedged its bets in discussing how much of the mammoth ALRC report will, in fact, be implemented.

A panellist at the Mallesons client briefing held last week, Special Council James Moore stressed that further consultation and lobbying by interested parties will be key to avoiding inefficient business outcomes from any proposed legislative changes.

Moore predicted that the legislative implementation of the ALRC recommendations will take place within the next 12 to 18 months.

In public, the government has remained vague about the true extent of its planned reforms, while, Moore says, Senator Faulkner’s office has advised practitioners that it doesn’t plan to reopen the issues covered by the report prior to drafting the changes to the Privacy Act.

However, in a recent speech at the inaugural Australian Privacy Awards, Senator Faulkner hinted that the government may be rethinking its approach on some of the more controversial elements of the reform package, including the proposed statutory cause of action for breach of privacy.

“If you’ve been reading the newspapers lately, you might be under the impression the government has already decided to accept the recommendation. In fact — like the rest of the government response to the three-volume, 74-chapter, 4.8 kilogram ALRC report — this recommendation will be dealt with in a considered manner, in line with the ‘two stage’ approach I outlined when launching the report,” Faulkner said.