The Federal Government has moved to introduce a legal right to privacy in the wake of Britain's News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

A discussion paper will be released to the public today to canvass the prospect of a law dealing with serious invasions of privacy.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor says privacy is a growing concern in Australia, partly because of the events in Britain, as well as other breaches such as the theft of the Sony PlayStation users' personal details.

"Right now there is no general right to privacy in Australia, and that means there's no certainty for anyone wanting to sue for an invasion of their privacy," Mr O'Connor said.

"The News of the World scandal and other recent mass breaches of privacy, both at home and abroad, have put the spotlight on whether there should be such a right."

He says the Government will eventually decide if it should legislate on the issue.

In 2008 the Australian Law Reform Commission made 295 recommendations, including that Australia bring in a privacy law.

"It's a timely debate to be had, we did always look to attend to those recommendations," Mr O'Connor said.

He says a media organisation should have to ensure that any breach of a person's privacy was in the public interest.

"I don't mean the public has an interest in it for titillation purposes, for example there's certain gossip which might be disclosed," he said.

"I'm talking about whether in fact it's in the public interest for the freedom of expression to prevail over that other value, which is of course the right to privacy."

But Australia's Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgram says the laws need to be changed.

"They have been the subject of two years of consideration by the Law Reform Commission, so I think these issues aren't new to us all as a community," he said.

"We're now looking at mechanisms to recognise the changing environment we're in and to consider updating the laws to meet the challenges."

Mr Pilgram says freedom of the press is an integral part of our society.

"It's welcoming that the Government will be putting out an issues paper so we can get all interested parties to comment on it, including the media, to make sure that as we go down this path we make sure we don't erode the freedom of the press," he said.

"At the end of the day it's integral to our free democratic society to have a very vibrant media."

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says with new media there are privacy issues that need to be addressed, such as cyber-bullying and stalking.

But he says any discussion about legislation should not just echo the News of the World inquiries.

"If we're going to look at privacy we should look right across all media and have an honest debate how much privacy," he said.

"[What] do we believe we are entitled to and to what extent should that limit the right of the media to free speech."

The UK hacking scandal has forced the resignations of senior executives at News Corporation and two of Britain's top policemen, as well as fuelling opposition attacks on prime minister David Cameron's judgment.

It has torn through News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch's empire, causing it to axe the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World and leading to the resignation of two of his top aides, Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.

Mr Murdoch appeared before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday night, where he expressed his "humble" regrets but did not take personal responsibility for the crisis.