On and on and on went the questions in Senate Estimates this week from Shadow Attorney Senator Brandis to Professor Croucher, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, about the reference on a statutory cause of action for breach of privacy, announced in March as part of the media reform package, but before the package fell in a heap. I thought it had disappeared along with the rest. That still may be the case. The short summary from the Q&A:
there has been discussion about terms of reference with the Attorney General's office and the Department in the context of the Commission's future work program; a draft or two was kicking around at some point; the reference may or may not eventuate, at the Attorney's call; and Professor Croucher is confident if it does, that it would involve more than simply a rerun of the same issue considered in detail in the Commission's 2008 report.
You like me might find water torture creeping into your consciousness if you wade through the Hansard extract:
