Despite any current or future ministerial or departmental denials, ‘explanations’ or excuses, I find it hard to believe that this 22 February 2017 end of business day release of a Centrelink client’s personal, sensitive, protected information to a journalist was accidental.
Particularly as this act was clearly repeated.
It has spite writ large all over it.
The office of human services minister, Alan Tudge, mistakenly sent a journalist internal departmental briefings about a welfare recipient’s personal circumstances, which included additional detail on her relationship and tax history.
Fox had written an opinion piece critical of Centrelink and its handling of her debt, which ran in Fairfax Media in February. The government released her personal details to Fairfax journalist Paul Malone, who subsequently published a piece attacking Fox and questioning the veracity of her claims.
Two responses were given to the journalist, one from the department of human services and the other from Tudge.
The department said its response – three dot points containing only minimal detail on Fox’s personal history – was cleared by lawyers and was lawful. The minister’s office then added two quotes from Tudge and sent its own response to Malone.
Guardian Australia can now reveal that the minister’s office also accidentally sent the journalist two internal briefing documents, marked “for official use only”, which had been prepared by the department.
Those documents contained additional information on Fox and her personal circumstances, which went beyond the dot points prepared by the department. They included further detail of her relationship history, including when she separated from her partner.
Those documents were then sent to Malone. The documents were also mistakenly sent to Guardian Australia when it raised questions about the disclosure of Fox’s personal information.
No mention of those documents was made in Senate estimates on Thursday, despite repeated questioning of what the minister had disclosed to Malone. Tudge’s office has now conceded the documents were sent to Malone in error. But the office says it was of no consequence, because all of their contents had been legally cleared by the department.
A welfare recipient’s personal details are considered protected information under social security law, and any unlawful disclosure is considered a criminal offence. Earlier, the department told estimates that social security law only allowed it to disclose the minimal amount of information needed to correct the public record. [my highlighting]
On 2 March 2017 Labor MP for Barton and Shadow Minister for Human Services, Linda Burney, wrote to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner requesting an investigation into the personal/sensitive information release by the minister and/or his staff:
BACKGROUND
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/search?q=centrelink
Protection
of personal information
Our obligations under
the Privacy Act
This policy sets out how we comply with our obligations under
the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles which are set out in
a Schedule to that Act.
The Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) regulate how
the department, as an APP entity, must collect, use, disclose and store
personal information. The APP
What personal information and
sensitive information is
The terms 'personal information' and
‘sensitive information’ come from section 6 of the Privacy Act.
References to personal information
throughout the Privacy Policy include sensitive information unless otherwise
indicated.
‘Personal information’ means:
Information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who
is reasonably identifiable:
a) whether the information or opinion
is true or not; and
b) whether the information or opinion is
recorded in a material form or not.
‘Sensitive information’ means:
a) information or an opinion about an
individual’s:
i. racial or ethnic origin
ii. political opinions
iii. membership of a political
association
iv. religious beliefs or affiliations
v. philosophical beliefs
vi. membership of a professional or
trade association
vii. membership of a trade union
viii. sexual orientation or practices
ix. criminal record.
b) health information about an
individual
c) genetic information about an
individual that is not otherwise health information
d) biometric information that is to be
used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric
identification e) biometric templates
It was also confirmed
Centrelink staff trawl social media for complaints about the welfare agency and
may refer serious gripes to the responsible minister.
Senior bureaucrats
responsible for Centrelink say their workers sift through print, broadcast and
social media for individual complaints.
Deciding on whether to
report grievances to the human services minister depended on the circumstances
of each case.
