Page 2663 - Week 09 - Thursday, 16 September 2021
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MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (5.36): I move amendment No 2 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 2679].
My second amendment seeks to amend the proposed new section 2E(4) to make it an offence for an authorised person to recklessly or intentionally access or use protected information. As was discussed earlier in the debate, it is not just people working in the ACT who are accessing this data for contact tracing purposes; we have partner organisations in other states who are presumably not subject to precisely the same employment status as those in the ACT. Nonetheless it would impose a higher bar for those in government on their use of the data, as well as a similar level of protection for the use of the data by those who are outside government.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (5.37): As I have flagged, the government will not be supporting Mrs Jones’s amendment. We do understand the intent of it, but we think that use of the data by authorised officers is already very well covered by existing mechanisms, which probably have more significant sanctions in them than would be created by this measure.
Amendment negatived.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (5.37): I seek leave to move an amendment to this clause that has not been considered by the scrutiny committee.
Leave granted.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I move amendment No 1 that has been circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 2679]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the amendment.
This is a very minor and technical amendment, as I have indicated. Essentially, part of the bill enables check-in information to be used for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting an offence that had previously included only the offence of failing to comply with a public health direction or giving false or misleading information. It was identified that the bill itself creates offences that would not be able to be investigated or prosecuted without access to the Check In CBR information, because they relate specifically to the use of Check In CBR information. This amendment simply adds another reason for the check-in information to be used for investigating or prosecuting an offence against this particular part of the bill. I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
Amendment agreed to.
MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (5.39): I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 2679].
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