There were 790 security breaches at government agency Centrelink
involving 600 staff. Staff were found to have inappropriately
accessed databases containing citizens' information. The databases
are used to administer social security, pension and unemployment
benefits. Prime Minister John Howard is said to be considering a
proposal which would use this database for a new national identity
card which is under consideration.
In total 19 Centrelink employees have been sacked and 92 others
have resigned. Police are conducting investigations into five
employees, they said.
The man charged with protecting citizens' privacy in relation to
the project said that the government must do more to prevent this
kind of security breach when so much vital information is gathered
in one place.
"The Centrelink revelations are deeply disturbing,” Professor
Allan Fels told Australian ABC radio. “I take some comfort from the
fact that the government has caught them and punished them, but
there is still a huge weight now on the government to provide full,
proper legal and technical protection of privacy with the access
card.”
The police have confirmed that investigations are ongoing after
five referrals were made to it from Centrelink. At least one of the
cases is believed to involve allegations of the establishment of
fake identities to be used to receive payments.
The investigation took two years and involved the use of
sophisticated spying equipment. Union officials said that staff had
repeatedly been warned about the inappropriate accessing of
records.
"Customer records should only be accessed for business reasons
and we do not tolerate staff surfing the details of family and
friends or peeking at records of neighbours," said Centrelink chief
executive Jeff Whalan. "As a result we revamped our techniques to
assist us to keep improper conduct in check, and we are committed
to maintaining that process."
Australian government minister Joe Hockey, who is responsible
for the smart card project, told Channel Seven news there that the
privacy breaches will not derail the plan, which will continue to
be implemented.
Editor's note, 29/08/2006: Some of our
Australian readers pointed out inaccuracies in the original version
of this story. These have been corrected. OUT-LAW apologises for
these errors.
