Commonwealth Numbered Acts

PRIVACY AMENDMENT ACT 1990 No. 116, 1990 - SECT 5

5. Section 6 of the Principal Act is amended:
(a) by omitting from subsection (1) the definition of "financial corporation"
and substituting the following definition:

" 'financial corporation' means a financial corporation within the meaning of
paragraph 51 (xx) of the Constitution;";

   (b)  by inserting in subsection (1) the following definitions:

" 'bank' means:

   (a)  the Reserve Bank of Australia; or

   (b)  a bank within the meaning of the Banking Act 1959; or

   (c)  a person who carries on State banking within the meaning of paragraph
        51 (xiii) of the Constitution;
'building society' means a society registered or incorporated as a building
society, co-operative housing society or similar society under a law relating
to such societies that is in force in a State or Territory;
'Code of Conduct' means the Code of Conduct issued under section 18A;
'commercial credit' means a loan sought or obtained by a person, other than a
loan of a kind referred to in the definition of 'credit' in this subsection;
'credit' means a loan sought or obtained by an individual from a credit
provider in the course of the credit provider carrying on a business or
undertaking as a credit provider, being a loan that is intended to be used
wholly or primarily for domestic, family or household purposes;
'credit card' means any article of a kind commonly known as a credit card,
charge card or any similar article intended for use in obtaining cash, goods
or services by means of loans, and includes any article of a kind commonly
issued by persons carrying on business to customers or prospective customers
of those persons for use in obtaining goods or services from those persons by
means of loans;
'credit information file', in relation to an individual, means any record that
contains information relating to the individual and is kept by a credit
reporting agency in the course of carrying on a credit reporting business
(whether or not the record is a copy of the whole or part of, or was prepared
using, a record kept by another credit reporting agency or any other person);
'credit provider' has the meaning given by section 11B, and, for the purposes
of sections 7 and 8 and Parts III, IV and V, is taken to include a mortgage
insurer and a trade insurer;
'credit report' means any record or information, whether in a written, oral or
other form, that:

   (a)  is being or has been prepared by a credit reporting agency; and

   (b)  has any bearing on an individual's:

        (i)    eligibility to be provided with credit; or

        (ii)   history in relation to credit; or

        (iii)  capacity to repay credit; and

   (c)  is used, has been used or has the capacity to be used for the purpose
        of serving as a factor in establishing an individual's eligibility for
        credit;
'credit reporting agency' has the meaning given by section 11A;
'credit reporting business' means a business or undertaking (other than a
business or undertaking of a kind in respect of which regulations made for the
purposes of subsection (5C) are in force) that involves the preparation or
maintenance of records containing personal information relating to individuals
(other than records in which the only personal information relating to
individuals is publicly available information), for the purpose, or for
purposes that include the purpose, of providing to other persons (whether for
profit or reward or otherwise) information on an individual's:

   (a)  eligibility to be provided with credit; or

   (b)  history in relation to credit; or

   (c)  capacity to repay credit;
whether or not the information is provided or intended to be provided for the
purposes of assessing applications for credit;
'credit reporting complaint' means a complaint about an act or practice that,
if established, would be an interference with the privacy of the complainant
because:

   (a)  it breached the Code of Conduct; or

   (b)  it breached a provision of Part IIIA;
'credit reporting infringement' means:

   (a)  a breach of the Code of Conduct; or

   (b)  a breach of a provision of Part IIIA;
'credit union' means a society or other body of persons that is registered or
incorporated as a credit union or credit society under a law relating to
credit unions or credit societies that is in force in a State or Territory;
'current credit provider', in relation to an individual, means a credit
provider who has given, to the individual, credit that has not yet been fully
repaid or otherwise fully discharged;
'eligible communications service' means a postal, telegraphic, telephonic or
other like service, within the meaning of paragraph 51 (v) of the
Constitution;
'loan' means a contract, arrangement or understanding under which a person is
permitted to defer payment of a debt, or to incur a debt and defer its
payment, and includes:

   (a)  a hire-purchase agreement; and

   (b)  such a contract, arrangement or understanding for the hire, lease or
        renting of goods or services, other than a contract, arrangement or
        understanding under which:

        (i)    full payment is made before, or at the same time as, the goods
               or services are provided; and

        (ii)   in the case of a hiring, leasing or renting of goods - an
               amount greater than or equal to the value of the goods is paid
               as a deposit for the return of the goods:
'mortgage credit' means credit provided in connection with the acquisition,
maintenance or improvement of real property, being credit in respect of which
the real property is security;
'mortgage insurer' means a corporation that carries on a business or
undertaking (whether for profit, reward or otherwise) that involves providing
insurance to credit providers in respect of mortgage credit given by credit
providers to other persons;
'serious credit infringement' means an act done by a person:

   (a)  that involves fraudulently obtaining credit, or attempting
        fraudulently to obtain credit; or

   (b)  that involves fraudulently evading the person's obligations in
        relation to credit, or attempting fraudulently to evade those
        obligations; or

   (c)  that a reasonable person would consider indicates an intention, on the
        part of the first-mentioned person, no longer to comply with the
        first-mentioned person's obligations in relation to credit;
'trade insurer' means a corporation that carries on a business or undertaking
(whether for profit, reward or otherwise) that involves providing insurance to
credit providers in respect of commercial credit given by credit providers to
other persons;";

   (c)  by inserting after subsection (3) the following subsection:

"(3A) For the purposes of this Act, an act or practice breaches the Code of
Conduct if, and only if, it is contrary to, or inconsistent with, the Code of
Conduct.";

   (d)  by inserting after subsection (5) the following subsections:

"(5A) For the purposes of the definition of 'credit reporting business' in
subsection (1), information concerning commercial transactions engaged in by
or on behalf of an individual is not to be taken to be information relating to
an individual's:

   (a)  eligibility to be provided with credit; or

   (b)  history in relation to credit; or

   (c)  capacity to repay credit.

"(5B) In considering whether a business or undertaking, carried on by a credit
provider that is a corporation, is a credit reporting business within the
meaning of this Act, the provision of information by the credit provider to
corporations related to it is to be disregarded.

"(5C) The regulations may provide that businesses or undertakings of a
specified kind are not credit reporting businesses within the meaning of this
Act.";

   (e)  by omitting subsection (7) and substituting the following subsection:

"(7) Nothing in this Act prevents a complaint from:

   (a)  being both a file number complaint and an IPP complaint; or

   (b)  being both a file number complaint and a credit reporting complaint.";

   (f)  by adding at the end the following subsection:

"(8) For the purposes of this Act, the question whether corporations are
related to each other is determined in the same manner as the question whether
corporations, within the meaning of the Companies Act 1981, are related to
each other would be determined under that Act.".