IAPP ANZ Summit 2025

Elizabeth Tydd took up the position of Australian Information Commissioner in August 2024 for a 5-year term.

Elizabeth is an experienced agency head and has occupied a number of statutory decision-making roles, including Information Commissioner and CEO of the NSW Information and Privacy Commission, Australian Freedom of Information Commissioner, Deputy President of the Workers Compensation Commission and Deputy Chairperson of the former Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.

Elizabeth has extensive regulatory and governance experience at an executive and board level in a range of jurisdictions and industries, including commercial, not-for-profit and public sector oversight.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws from the University of Technology Sydney, as well as postgraduate certificates in executive management and governance together with post graduate qualifications in leadership and policy from Harvard University. Elizabeth possesses expertise in digital government and has written extensively on this subject.

Michael Webster took up the role of Privacy Commissioner on 5 July 2022. Prior to this appointment he worked in the Cabinet Office, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for 14 years, and held the position of Secretary of the Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council from March 2014. Commissioner Webster’s career has focused on enabling and driving good governance, the promotion of democratic rights and values, the development and application of codes of conduct and behaviour, and working to ensure compliance with both statutory provisions and constitutional conventions.

Since taking up the role, Commissioner Webster has focused on ensuring the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is equipped to deliver on its vision of making privacy a core focus for agencies, in order to protect the privacy of individuals, enable agencies to achieve their own objectives and safeguard a free and democratic society. That has seen a strengthening of the compliance and enforcement function, a focus on delivering on the Office’s regulatory stewardship responsibilities and advocating for a regulatory framework and Privacy Act fit for the digital age.