Page 3866 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 30 November 2021

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That this Assembly:

(1) notes that The Canberra Times article of 25 November 2021 reported that workers compensation data was publicly available online, resulting in a serious privacy breach for 30 000 public sector employees;

(2) recognises:

(a) that this incident has led to a loss of confidence in the ACT Government to protect employee confidentiality; and

(b) caused significant distress to employees whose personal information was included in this data breach; and

(3) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) establish an independent external review into the breach of workers compensation data breach as reported in The Canberra Times on 25 November 2021;

(b) table the terms of reference of the review, including the details of the reviewer, in this Assembly by the last sitting day in February 2022; and

On 25 November this year the Canberra Times reported:

The sensitive health data of nearly 30,000 ACT public servants has remained publicly accessible for more than three years in a privacy breach experts have described as extremely concerning.

The spreadsheet uploaded to the Tenders ACT website in 2018 contains details of workers compensation claims dating back to 1989, including highly personal information about the claimants’ year of birth, gender, occupation, which ACT government directorate, details of injuries, and information about financial compensation. This is the information which was disclosed, which this Labor-Greens government claims was adequately redacted to protect privacy: year of birth, gender, occupation, which ACT government directorate, details of injuries, and information about financial compensation.

This is the information which was disclosed, which this Labor-Greens government claims it will not state was a breach of privacy: year of birth, gender, occupation, which ACT government directorate, details of injuries, and information about financial compensation. This is the information which was disclosed, which this Labor-Greens government claims does not require an independent external review. This incident should be ringing alarm bells for those in the highest positions in government because it is certainly ringing alarm bells for those in our community.

We know that legal experts are worried about the breach. Tom Maling from Elringtons labelled the incident “extremely intrusive” and “an enormous invasion of privacy” for claimants. Mr Maling said:

The disclosure of this type of sensitive information for a purpose other than helping them recover will be extremely concerning to workers who are impacted, as it represents a significant breach of trust.

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