From Lenah Game Meats to Farm Transparency: Cultures of Privacy and Surveillance in Australia
Speaker: Professor Megan Richardson, University of Melbourne
Commentator: The Hon Margaret A Wilson KC
Chair: Mr Paxton Booth, Queensland Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner
This paper offers an Australian take on James Whitman's article, 'The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity Versus Liberty' in the 2004 Yale Law Journal, where comparative lawyer Whitman argues that the American culture of privacy is essentially a libertarian idea centred in the home and against the state, while the European culture of privacy is more generally centred on an idea of human dignity. Based on a review of recent Australian High Court decisions on 'privacy' including Australian Broadcasting Corporation v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd (2001) and Farm Transparency International Ltd v New South Wales (2022) (along with the earlier case of Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Co Ltd v Taylor (1937)), the paper speculates that the Australian culture of privacy is still undeveloped, but appears to be closely imbricated with a deeply conflicted culture of surveillance viewed as something that is both socially benign and socially malign. If this is right, the paper argues, it may help to explain the currently moribund state and limited reform (to date) of our privacy and surveillance devices laws.
