Confusion

I wish I understood Australian Privacy laws. It would make some news reports much less confusing for me. Take the one in today's The Daily Telegraph with the headline "Mate, your girlfriend was a bloke". The gist: Allegedly. A man is arrested for suspected theft. While he is being held in custody, two police officers look up details on his girlfriend and advise the man that "you're r**ting a bloke". When the man is released on bail he goes to her apartment and starts "belting the hell" out of her. She spends several days in hospital after the attack. The man is charged with assault. The two police officers who revealed the information about his girlfriend are prosecuted under the Prfivacy and Personal information Protection Act and plead "not guilty". The story of their trial is reported in The Daily Telegraph which includes the names of all players as well as a photograph of the girlfriend - who had previously told only a few close friends of her gender reassignment. Police knew of her changed status only because she had sought their help after previous violent incidents.
So - do Privacy laws not extend to/affect the media? With the reporting of the trial, there now appears to be more public than private about the girlfriend's circumstances.
And, as an aside, as the police allegedly were aware of violent episodes between the man and his girlfriend in the days before his theft arrest - should they also be charged for their part in taunting him - which could be argued to have instigated the attack?