CA ANZ and CPA Australia welcomes the opportunity to provide a joint submission to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) recent Consumer Data Right (CRD) consultation, on the exposure draft of the Customer and Product Data Bill (the draft law) and the accompanying discussion document.

Our joint submission makes the following points:

• We support the proposal to rely on the Privacy Act protections wherever possible when developing the draft law.
• Where the implementation of this regime creates gaps in the protection of personal data, we recommend that amendments are made in the Privacy Act to ensure consistency in the approach to regulating personal information.
• We support a maximum period for a customer’s authorisation, at which time the data holder or accredited requestor can seek confirmation to roll over the authorisation for another maximum period, or action a request to withdraw the authorisation.
• The intent of the draft Bill is to create an electronic system, with this in mind, we are concerned with the proposal to facilitate the withdrawal of authorisation by email or phone by a customer.
• We are concerned that the draft law penalises non-accredited requestors as an accredited requestor does not have to action their request. We question if this may create a barrier for the professionals who provide services to customers, such as professional accountants, who need accounting data to service and support their clients.
• We request clarity of the expected class of people that could be brought into the regime as secondary users, which may capture professionals accountants, including members of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and CPA Australia.

For more information, visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s CDR page.