Govt to reintroduce consumer data right bill

The government will reintroduce legislation for the consumer data right (CDR) to parliament this week after it lapsed without passage when parliament was dissolved back in April.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement that progress on implementing a data right was continuing despite the legislation not being in place.

The bill was first introduced back in February this year before being sent to a Senate committee for further examination.

Its reintroduction should provide some answers around how much industry criticism over the scheme has been addressed.

Banks have warned that privacy and security assumptions for the CDR are riddled with understated risks and cyber fraud holes.

AGL Energy warned the right was being rushed in at the expense of good design and consumers’ actual needs.

Cuscal, meanwhile, has warned that identity and consent in the system is still too complicated.

Frydenberg pressed a positive agenda for the CDR as he announced the impending reintroduction of enabling legislation.

“This initiative has already seen major improvements in the levels of transparency over the terms and conditions of a wide range of banking products, with three of the four major banks voluntarily launching the first stage of the Consumer Data Right on 1 July 2019,” he said.

“The next stage – due in February 2020 – will give consumers greater access to information that banks hold on them; and the power to require those banks to provide safe and secure access to that information to trusted third parties.  

“Within the regime, consumers will have control over what data will be shared, with whom and for what purposes.”

Frydenberg claimed that “progress to the February launch is well advanced.”