Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for Public and Active Transport) (12:40): I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

These amendments speak to providing stronger protections around privacy and data collection. While the bill already contained provision for minimum standards determined by the regulator in relation to the collection, possession, transmission, disclosure and destruction of security camera and audio recording device data, the amendments made in the other place will require the regulator to consult with the Office of the Information Commissioner before publishing the standards and require the regulator to review the standards every three years to ensure they are keeping up with modern privacy concerns and changes in technology. Additionally, the amendments made in the other place will limit the purposes by which police officers can access security camera data. The purposes will be limited to the investigation of commercial passenger vehicle incidents and the investigation and prosecution of crimes. These are good amendments that strengthen this important legislation, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (12:41): I do not intend to speak on the amendments for long. The opposition supports the amendments. We did so in the Legislative Council, and we do, obviously, today, and we do not oppose the passage of the bill. The significant privacy, proportionality and governance concerns, which we raised during the debate in the Assembly, were formalised through our reasoned amendment. The government did put forward two substantive amendments directly reflecting the issues raised both in the Legislative Assembly and in the Council. As the minister stated, the agreed government amendments are around consultation with the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner when creating minimum standards, and the mandatory consultation with OVIC is a move forward, and the statutory review of the standards every three years to ensure ongoing accountability and compliance with contemporary privacy practice embeds independent privacy oversight into the regulatory framework, which is precisely the kind of safeguard which the previous shadow minister for transport, the member for Nepean, had been seeking when he moved his reasoned amendment and sought those amendments from the opposition then in the Legislative Council in the third reading. The second amendment is the narrowing of police access powers, and I understand the government will refine those police provisions in the bill to narrow those powers so that there is only access and use for commercial passenger vehicle audio and camera recordings in the course of an investigation and other matters can be obtained, and that does ensure the power is targeted, proportionate, not open to misuse or routine data access outside of the defined investigative purposes. As a consequence, we supported those amendments in the Legislative Council, and we will do so here in the Assembly today.

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (12:42): I just wanted to put on record very quickly my support for the amendments. I thank the Shadow Minister for Public Transport for addressing the amendments in their substance to what they go to. I just wanted to also, as the shadow minister who was carrying the bill at the time when it came through this place, thank my staff, who worked closely with the minister’s office to strengthen these privacy provisions and make sure that this bill does not invade too far into the privacy of Victorians when it comes to recordings within those commercial passenger vehicles. These are amendments that the Council and the government brought forward in the Council, that we supported, that do make this a better bill, and I think that is what we should always be trying to do in this place. Any legislation that comes through, if there are ways to make improvements on either side of the chamber, we should always be looking to do so. I just want to put on record my thanks to my staff, who helped work with the government and the minister’s office on the amendments that have come to us. As the Shadow Minister for Public Transport the member for Bulleen said, we will be supporting these amendments.

Motion agreed to.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.