By Sean Maguire ( June 5, 2026, 07:02 GMT | Comment) -- The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner faces rising workloads and major upcoming reforms, even as its budget is being cut by 8 percent. Privacy experts and advocates warn that longstanding underfunding could undermine enforcement, despite the agency securing a landmark $4.1 million penalty and taking on expanded responsibilities such as regulating 100,000 additional small businesses. At the same time, growing backlogs in privacy complaints and freedom-of-information requests highlight concerns that Australia is not adequately resourcing privacy enforcement.The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or OAIC, has got more work to do than ever, but its funding is going in the wrong direction. That mismatch comes at a time when privacy concerns are growing among the public and imperils the ability of the government to expand the application of privacy law to more businesses in a credible way....
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