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303A: Disclosure of information to specified agencies for purposes of law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and security
or “Sharing traveller information with government agencies for safety and security”
You could also call this:

“Immigration can share traveller information with certain agencies for safety and security reasons”

The head of the Immigration Department can let the head of certain other government agencies look directly at information about travellers. This is to help with law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and security.

Before allowing this access, the Immigration Department head must make an agreement with the other agency. This agreement needs to say what information can be looked at, why it can be looked at, and who in the agency can look at it.

The agreement also needs to explain how the agency will keep records of when they look at the information, how they’ll protect people’s personal details, and how they’ll store and get rid of the information they get. They also need to say how often they’ll review this agreement.

When the agreement talks about ‘access’, it means the agency can look at the information from their own computers. The information is kept in databases, which are systems the Immigration Department uses to store information.

The agreement covers something called ‘APP information’. This refers to information about travellers, but you’d need to look at section 303A(5) to find out exactly what it means. That section also explains what they mean by ‘specified agency’, ‘chief executive of a specified agency’, and ‘person of interest’.

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Next up: 303C: Requirements for agreements entered into under section 303, 303A, or 303B

or “Rules for information sharing agreements between the Department and other agencies”
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Part 8 Compliance and information
Disclosure of information to or by other agencies, bodies, or persons

303BDirect access to information for purposes of law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and security

  1. For the purpose of section 303A, the chief executive of the Department may allow the chief executive of a specified agency to access the APP information database or databases to search for information relating to a person of interest.

  2. Before allowing the chief executive of a specified agency access to the APP information, the chief executive of the Department must enter into an agreement with the specified agency in accordance with section 303C.

  3. The agreement must specify, in addition to the matters set out in section 303C(2)(d) to (h),—

  4. the particular information that may be accessed:
    1. the particular purpose or purposes for which the information may be accessed:
      1. the positions or designations of the persons in the specified agency who may access the database or databases:
        1. the records to be kept in relation to each occasion on which a database is accessed:
          1. the safeguards that are to be applied for protecting personal information that is accessed:
            1. the requirements relating to storage and disposal of information obtained by the specified agency from the database:
              1. the requirements for reviewing the agreement.

                1. In this section,—

                  access, in relation to a database, includes remote access to the database

                    APP information, chief executive of a specified agency, specified agency, and person of interest have the meanings given to them by section 303A(5)

                      APP information database means the database of APP information

                        database means any information recording system or facility used by the Department to store or process information.

                        Notes
                        • Section 303B: inserted, on , by section 276 of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017 (2017 No 10).