NSW Exemptions for Publishing Private Recordings in the Public Interest

Surveillance Devices Amendment (Public Interest Exemptions) Bill 2023

Private Member's Bill

11 Oct 2023: MPs in the first house are debating whether this bill is a good idea in principle.

Legislative Council

Legislative Assembly

Assent

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Topics

privacy rights private conversations recording exemptions surveillance devices

Introduced by: Emma Hurst MLC (AJP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

People can publish private conversations or recordings made with illegal surveillance devices; this only applies if it is in the public interest.
People can possess records of private conversations made with illegal surveillance devices; this only applies if they intend to publish them in the public interest.

News articles and press releases

Surveillance Devices Amendment (Public Interest Exemptions) Bill 2023

The Hon. EMMA HURST — 2023-10-11

The bill will resolve those longstanding issues by creating public interest exemptions to sections 11 and 12 of the Surveillance Devices Act, based on the Victorian model. Specifically, the bill creates a new exemption to section 11 in new section 11 (2 - c) that provides that a person will not be in breach for communicating or publishing an unlawful recording of a private conversation or a recording of activities "if the communication or publication is made in the public interest". It also creates an exemption to the section 12 possession offence if the possession is "for the purposes of making a communication or publication in the public interest".