In the course of preparing the legislation, officials from my office met with the Ombudsman for Children, the Data Protection Commissioner and senior officials from the Ombudsman's office. As always, those discussions were constructive and helpful. The Data Protection Commissioner was concerned that any release of sensitive personal information should be consistent with data protection principles, in particular, that any disclosure of such information without consent should have a necessary public interest dimension. I share the commissioner's view. My objective throughout the Bill is to have a proportionate response to correctly balance the public interest and respect the individual's legal and constitutional rights, including the right to privacy. That is why there is an express public interest criterion in section 40C.

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