Amendments to Australian Privacy Act Tabled 6/6/00 The long awaited amendments to the Privacy Act in Australia that aim to extend protection and standards to the collection, storage and use of personal information in the private sector have been introduced by the Federal Attorney in the House of Representatives. The proposed changes will only affect the creation of new databases, not existing ones and only apply from July 1 2001 for big business and July 1 2002 for small business. According to John Sergeant, the MRSA (Market Research Society of Australia) Ethics spokesperson, "This falls well short of the position we had hoped the Government would take. The MRSA and the research industry are concerned about the current practices of collecting personal information and on-selling of data without individual's permission. Confidentiality and consent are the foundations of our profession. It protects our most important resource - the goodwill of the public. Activities like telemarketing and databasing are easily confused in the public's mind with research. If this continues to happen and there is a loss of confidence by the public, our industry will suffer". However, for the legislation to be passed in the Senate with either the support of the Australian Labor Party or the Australian Democrats, it will need to be significantly amended.