Australian Centre for Disease Control Act 2025

The Director‑General may, in writing, make a declaration (a data sharing declaration) under this subsection if the Director‑General is satisfied that:

there is a severe and immediate, or severe and unforeseen, threat to public health; and

making the declaration is necessary to respond to the threat.

Without limiting subsection (1), a data sharing declaration must specify the following matters:

the kinds of information to which the declaration applies;

the extent (if any) to which the declaration applies to:

personal information about any person (including a deceased person); or

information (including commercially sensitive information) the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to found an action by an entity (other than the Commonwealth) for breach of a duty of confidence;

the entity or class of entities that may collect, use or disclose the information in accordance with the declaration;

the entity or class of entities that the information may be disclosed to in accordance with the declaration;

one or more permitted purposes of the collection, use or disclosure.

A permitted purpose specified for the purposes of paragraph (2)(e) must be a purpose that is directly related to preventing or reducing the threat to public health mentioned in paragraph (1)(a).

Without limiting subsection 33(3A) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, or any other provision of this Act, a data sharing declaration may provide differently for:

different kinds of information; and

different entities or classes of entities; and

different permitted purposes.

A data sharing declaration may specify a matter mentioned in subsection (2) subject to conditions.

A data sharing declaration is a legislative instrument, but section 42 (disallowance) of the Legislation Act 2003 does not apply to the declaration.