Hello, privacy pros.

My fellow Asia-Pacific IAPP country leaders rotate authoring this weekly digest. Generally, we look for items to highlight across the region and add our particular local perspective. I’m going to take a bit of a departure in this edition and focus on developments within Australia.

If you haven’t kept up with all of the changes coming to the Australian privacy landscape this year, read "2020 Australian legislative predictions and updates" from Lyn Nicholson of law firm Holding Redlich. I don’t want to spoil all the surprises, but expect to read about larger fines, stronger consumer protections and commencement of one of the world’s more prescriptive privacy regimes, the Consumer Data Right. If the explicit consent and data portability obligations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation left you wanting more, you are going to love Australia’s Consumer Data Right.

With so many changes on the horizon, it’s even more important for us to continue to raise privacy awareness. Privacy Awareness Week will be held in Australia from 4 to 10 May and across the Asia-Pacific region throughout the month of May. PAW is sponsored by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and the event aims to raise awareness of privacy issues and grow confidence in the handling of personal information by government and industry. Australian organizations can show their support for good privacy practice by becoming a PAW Supporter with the OAIC. Visit the OAIC to sign up and be among the first to receive supporting materials to help you promote privacy in your organization and your stakeholders.

We are still accepting speaking proposals for the IAPP ANZ Summit 2020, which will be held in Sydney in the latter part of the year (dates to be published soon). From the perspective of a purely selfish audience member, I would like to offer a couple suggestions for your proposals. First and foremost, get practical. Principles are important (fundamental, even), but I want to walk away from most sessions with a better understanding of how to apply those principles. Second, for panels, be sure you’re finding different perspectives — different industries, different skills, different personalities. Give us real discussion and even (polite) disagreement among the panelists.

Finally, this week I was surprised to find my team in the news regarding the establishment of NAB’s Global Privacy Office and our recruiting efforts. Organizations across Australia are staffing up on privacy, which is making it difficult to recruit experienced privacy professionals. To those of you looking for privacy roles, Australia is hiring!