Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) Protected information means information of any of the following kinds obtained or generated by a person:
(a) information (including commercially sensitive information) the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to found an action by a person (other than the Commonwealth) for breach of a duty of confidence;
(b) information the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to prejudice the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of one or more offences;
(c) information the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to prejudice the security, defence or international relations of Australia;
(d) information of a kind prescribed by rules made for the purposes of this paragraph.
Note 1: The rules are made by the Secretary under section 432. They are a disallowable legislative instrument and are subject to sunsetting under the Legislation Act 2003 .
Note 2: The Minister may, by legislative instrument, give directions to the Secretary in relation to the performance of the Secretary's functions or the exercise of the Secretary's powers in making rules under section 432 (see subsection 289(1)).
(2) Before the Secretary makes rules prescribing a kind of information for the purposes of paragraph (1)(d), the Secretary must be satisfied that disclosure of that kind of information would or could reasonably be expected to:
(a) prejudice the effective working of the Department; or
(b) otherwise harm the public interest.