One of Australia’s largest banks has urged the federal government to balance protecting people’s personal data with detecting and stamping out organised crime when it unveils sweeping reforms to privacy laws.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus this year is expected to legislate changes to the decades-old Privacy Act, after a review by his department recommended 116 changes to better protect Australians’ personal information.

National Australia Bank executive money laundering and reporting officer Paul Jevtovic, who was formerly head of financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC, said the biggest threat to organised crime was governments working in tandem with the private sector.

“We’re dealing with a combatant that has the access to the best technologies; faster than we can probably embrace it,” Jevtovic told this masthead. “They are moralless, lawless, jurisdictionless. So, there’s our starting point, and here we are trying to combat them within the laws we have, with the finite resources we have, and of course, endeavouring to protect our way of life.”

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Under the proposed new laws, Australians would gain the right to sue for privacy invasion, avoid being targeted by firms using sensitive personal information and demand companies erase their data. Small businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less, which are currently exempt from being required to protect personal information, would have to comply with the law.

The issue of privacy came to a head in late 2022 when major hacks at Optus and Medibank compromised the personal data of millions of Australians.

Jevtovic said new laws that better enable the sharing of information between the private and public sector would put the country in a stronger position.

“Organised crime has the ability to buy data that can tell them who they [vulnerable people] are, and there’s the risk that we need to continuously protect,” he said.