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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1217 ..
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
QUESTION NO. 400
ACTAC Building - Fingerscan Security System
MR OSBORNE - Asked the Chief Minister upon notice on 8 April 1997:
In relation to the new fingerscan security system installed in the ACTAC (Canberra Nara Centre) building -
(1) What is the total cost of the new fingerscan security system?
(2) The Chief Executive of the Chief Minister's Department is quoted in The Canberra Times as stating that the new system cost $37,000. Does this include:
(a) installation and removal of the existing system;
(b) public servants' time spent investigating the upgrade of the system and examining at least three tenders; and
(c) the cost of scanning the fingerprints of all the staff who need to have access to the building?
(3) Can you explain (a) why such an elaborate security system was needed to guard the ACTAC building; (b) what prompted the change; and (c) who authorised it?
(4) Do you know of other buildings in Canberra that use this system, or anything similar and, if so, why?
(5) Is the system, now in use in ACTAC, more advanced than those guarding sites of national importance (eg. ministerial offices in Federal Parliament and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)?
(6) Is there an alternative system that is not as elaborate or as costly?
(7) The Chief Executive has indicated in a circular to ACT public servants, that the system does not infringe privacy laws, as records of fingerprints are not kept. If this is the case,
(a) could you explain how the system differentiates between users ie. if there is no central database of finger profiles, against which people's fingerprints (or profiles of their fingers) are checked, how does the system accurately determine who it is letting in or keeping out; and
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