What’s New
in the Law? Lachlan Williams
Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2019 (Cth)
Love v Commonwealth of Australia; Thoms v Commonwealth of Australia [2020] HCA 3 In a landmark decision, the High Court, by a 4:3 majority, ruled that Aboriginal Australian’s who don’t hold Australian citizenship are unable to be deported under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). Both plaintiffs, Mr Love and Mr Thoms,were born overseas with one Aboriginal Australian parent. Both were convicted of offences against the Criminal Code (Qld) and facing faced deportation as unlawful non-citizens. Section 51(xix) of the Constitution, the ‘alien’ power, confers the parliaments right to do so. The key issue for the Court, was whether Aboriginal Australian’s could be considered as ‘aliens’. Gordon J in the majority the connection to land by First Nations People was not noted that First Nations People connection to the land was not , and therefore extinguished as a result of European settlement and therefore they cannot be considered ‘alien’ the power. they could be ‘aliens’ on their under own land.
6 | The Brief
New laws passed in 2019 introduced a Consumer Data Right (‘CDR’) to the banking sector. The right enables consumers to direct their bank to share information they hold about them, with other suppliers. It will also give the consumer access to view their own data. All four major banks since July 2019 have been required to publicly share their product data and since February 2020, the four major banks have been required to share their consumer data relating to mortgage accounts. By July 2020, consumer data relating to personal loans will be available. The plan is to phase the CDR across all banks and other sectors moving forward.
Ed.2 2020
