Staying ahead of privacy reforms and building privacy resilience

Amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) increased the enforcement powers of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), introducing new civil penalty tiers and giving the OAIC the ability to issue infringement notices for minor breaches. This marks the beginning of a stronger regulatory environment for organisations that do not comply …
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OAIC Finds Government Use of Messaging Apps Lacks Oversight

Australian Government Agencies have been urged by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to strengthen their policies on messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook messenger.  On 19 March 2025 the OAIC published ‘Messaging apps: a report on Australian Government agency practices and policies’ highlighting significant gaps in the governance of messaging …
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How can you protect your data from cyber incidents?

In the 2023-24 financial year, Australia saw nearly 94,000 reports of cybercrime submitted to the Australian Cyber Security Centre. This was a 23% increase compared to the previous year.  The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) received over 36,700 calls to its Australian Cybersecurity Hotline, an increase of 12% from the previous financial year. The ASD also …
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Does your organisation understand its whistleblower obligations?

Whistleblowers play an important role in recognising and reporting misconduct and breaches of the law by organisations. The Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) contains a whistleblower protection scheme that imposes obligations on many organisations in relation to the handling of whistleblower disclosures.

Carina Zeccola

Managing Director

Carina is the Managing Director and Government Team Leader at Griffin Legal. As Managing Director, Carina leads the execution of the firm’s strategic direction, by working closely with our team and clients to achieve the firm’s goals and vision, which is to remain a leading innovative legal and advisory firm. As Government Team Leader, Carina …
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Claire

Claire Carton

Executive Director

Claire is founding partner and Executive Director at Griffin Legal and is our Not-for-Profit Team Leader. Now in her third decade of legal practice, Claire is known for her focused and strategic delivery of client outcomes. Having started her legal career in banking and finance, Claire has continued to practice broadly in corporate and commercial …
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Nicole Platt

Partner

Nicole is a Partner at Griffin Legal,  who specialises in the areas of probity and procurement, as well as overseeing the firm’s wills and estates practice. Nicole is a subject matter expert on running defensible and compliant procurement processes, with a particular interest on ensuring probity in the process. Nicole is an experienced Government lawyer …
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Damien

Damien Brazel

Partner

Damien is a Partner at Griffin Legal, and his main areas of practice are administrative law, litigation, procurement and information law. Damien has advised on a numerous Australian Government policies and programs, and the legislative frameworks that underpins them. Damien delivers solution-orientated legal advice based on over 15 years’ experience advising many different agencies, including …
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A tale of two intertwining records 

The CEO of Services Australia (Agency) has recently been found by the Australian Privacy Commissioner (Commissioner) to have interfered with a customer’s privacy after a series of issues involving the Agency intertwining customer records.