This opinion article by Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black was published in The Daily Telegraph on 5 February 2026
If you run or work for a cafe, a factory, a farm, a vet, or any other business in NSW, take note: Your privacy is at risk thanks to new laws before parliament.
The NSW Digital Work Systems Bill doesn’t just affect “big tech” or complex algorithms, it exposes everyone with a job or a business to the whims of union officials. As drafted, it hits every workplace in NSW.
This isn’t a tidy clarification of existing workplace safety law as the government claims. It’s a sledgehammer. It creates a brand-new right for union officials to access and inspect almost any digital system used at work, based on little more than suspicion.
That includes your emails, HR files, payroll systems and operational platforms. If it’s digital (and in 2026, almost everything is) it’s open slather. And if you say no to protect those you’re responsible to, you’ll be in court.
Furthermore, the Bill doesn’t distinguish between high-risk systems and everyday software. It simply declares “guilty until proven innocent” on access to workplace technology.
In what the state government has proposed, we see manifestly weak protections for the data sitting inside those systems.
There are insufficient safeguards for commercially sensitive information. No realistic way to separate personal employee records from some of the systems being inspected. No cyber security framework for what happens once data is accessed, copied, photographed or recorded.
And anyone claiming personal data can be neatly “quarantined” from all digital systems has never actually used one. HR, payroll, emails and customer data are deeply intertwined. Once access is granted, the horse has bolted.
And here’s the real kicker: the burden falls squarely on business owners. The government says courts will act as a safeguard. That’s simply not what the Bill says. There is no requirement for a union to get court approval before accessing systems.
The only way this ends up before a judge is if an employer refuses and is then hauled to court for breaching a union’s right of entry.
So, let’s be clear: If you think a union official’s access request puts your workers’ privacy, your customers’ data or your business security at risk, your choice will be comply or lawyer up. Small businesses won’t have that luxury.
What this Bill does create is uncertainty, risk and a massive deterrent to investment. NSW would become an outlier state in which using everyday business technology carries new legal and security hazards.
Workers, customers and businesses expect their data to be protected. This Bill, in its current form, does the opposite. If it passes unchanged, every NSW workplace will pay the price.