(1) Subject to this Division, where the Commissioner is satisfied that:
(a) an act or practice of an agency breaches, or may breach, an Information Privacy Principle; and
(b) the public interest in the agency doing the act, or engaging in the practice, outweighs to a substantial degree the public interest in adhering to that Information Privacy Principle;
the Commissioner may make a written determination to that effect and, if the Commissioner does so, the fact that the act or practice breaches that Information Privacy Principle shall:
(c) if the agency does the act while the determination is in force; or
(d) in so far as the agency engages in the practice while the determination is in force;
as the case may be, be disregarded for the purpose of section 16.
Determinations about an organisation's acts and practices
(2) Subject to this Division, if the Commissioner is satisfied that:
(a) an act or practice of an organisation breaches, or may breach, an approved privacy code, or a National Privacy Principle, that binds the organisation; but
(b) the public interest in the organisation doing the act, or engaging in the practice, substantially outweighs the public interest in adhering to that code or Principle;
the Commissioner may make a written determination to that effect.
Effect of determination under subsection (2)
(3) The organisation is taken not to contravene section 16A if the organisation does the act, or engages in the practice, while the determination is in force under subsection (2).
Giving a determination under subsection (2) general effect
(4) The Commissioner may make a written determination that no organisation is taken to contravene section 16A if, while that determination is in force, an organisation does an act, or engages in a practice, that is the subject of a determination under subsection (2) in relation to that organisation or any other organisation.
Effect of determination under subsection (4)
(5) A determination under subsection (4) has effect according to its terms.
(2) The National Health and Medical Research Council may make an application under subsection (1) on behalf of other agencies concerned with medical research or the provision of health services.
(3) Where an application is made by virtue of subsection (2), a reference in the succeeding provisions of this Part to the agency is a reference to the National Health and Medical Research Council.
(4) Where the Commissioner makes a determination under section 72 on an application made by virtue of subsection (2), that section has effect, in relation to each of the agencies on whose behalf the application was made as if the determination had been made on an application by that agency.
(2) The Commissioner shall not, except with the consent of the agency, permit the disclosure to another body or person of information contained in a document provided by an agency as part of, or in support of, an application if the agency has informed the Commissioner in writing that the agency claims that the document is an exempt document within the meaning of Part IV of the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
(2) If the applicant is an agency, the Commissioner must send to the agency, and to each other person (if any) who is interested in the application, a written invitation to notify the Commissioner, within the period specified in the invitation, whether or not the agency or other person wishes the Commissioner to hold a conference about the draft determination.
(2A) If the applicant is an organisation, the Commissioner must:
(a) send a written invitation to the organisation to notify the Commissioner, within the period specified in the invitation, whether or not the organisation wishes the Commissioner to hold a conference about the draft determination; and
(b) issue, in any way the Commissioner thinks appropriate, an invitation in corresponding terms to the other persons (if any) that the Commissioner thinks appropriate.
(3) An invitation under subsection (2) or subsection (2A) shall specify a period that begins on the day on which the invitation is sent and is not shorter than the prescribed period.
(2) The Commissioner shall fix a day, time and place for the holding of the conference.
(3) The day fixed shall not be more than 30 days after the latest day on which a period specified in any of the invitations sent in relation to the draft determination expires.
(4) The Commissioner shall give notice of the day, time and place of the conference to the agency or organisation and to each person to whom an invitation was sent.
(2) At the conference, a person to whom an invitation was sent, or any other person who is interested in the application and whose presence at the conference is considered by the Commissioner to be appropriate, is entitled to attend and participate personally or, in the case of a body corporate, to be represented by a person who is, or persons each of whom is, a director, officer or employee of the body corporate.
(3) The Commissioner may exclude from the conference a person who:
(a) is entitled neither to participate in the conference nor to represent a person who is entitled to be represented at the conference;
(b) uses insulting language at the conference;
(c) creates, or takes part in creating or continuing, a disturbance at the conference; or
(d) repeatedly disturbs the conference.
(a) such determination under section 72 as he or she considers appropriate; or
(b) a written determination dismissing the application.
(2) The Commissioner shall, in making a determination, take account of all submissions about the application that have been made, whether at a conference or not, by the agency, organisation or any other person.
(3) The Commissioner shall include in a determination a statement of the reasons for the determination.
(2) Section 48 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 applies to a determination referred to in paragraph 78(a) as if paragraph (1)(b) of section 48 were omitted and the following paragraph substituted:
"(b) subject to this section, shall take effect on the first day on which the determination is no longer liable to be disallowed, or to be deemed to be disallowed, under this section; and".