Question time - Offshoring private information - October 10 2006

Question from the Leader of the Opposition, The Honourable Kim Beasley MP

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to recent media reports of Australian businesses sending customer information offshore for processing and to media reports in the last week about a massive illegal trade in personal data files in India. Why won’t the Prime Minister adopt Labor’s plan to ensure Australians have a right to know when their bank details, credit card files, health records and other sensitive information is sent overseas?

Response from the Prime Minster, The Honourable John Howard MP

Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition appreciates it when it suits him, but on occasions when it does not suit him he does not appreciate that in a globalised world lots of tasks flow across borders from one country to another. Just as this country wants the advantages of globalisation, so it should be that we must accept that part of a globalised world is a much freer flow of information, and the idea that you can have an effective regulatory regime of the type he is talking about ignores the realities of the modern world.

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