As Information Commissioner, as an agent of Parliament, if I prepare a special report to Parliament and it's disclosed when it's sent to an institution for comments, that would cause me personal embarrassment vis-à-vis Parliament, because this is something I'm preparing for parliamentarians. Since there's no such exemption in the act, I've reconsidered how I will conduct these report cards. If I do them under a formal investigation, then they're protected by the confidentiality provisions for investigations under the act. That would not be my preferred route, but it's another example of what people are now having to do in certain circumstances in order to ensure that matters you would expect to be protected by parliamentary privilege are actually protected.
In the meantime, given that this is the situation when information is shared between Parliament and institutions, perhaps before information is shared there should be a consideration in Parliament as to whether or not this could be an issue if it were disclosed by the federal institutions covered under the act. Once it leaks, there could be an argument for a presumption, akin to solicitor-client confidentiality, that there is a waiver of privilege at that time.