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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-19 Daily Xml
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South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (15:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General on SACAT.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: Recently, The Advertiser reported concerns regarding deeply personal details of another person's records being sent in error. These included confidential medical and legal documents and deeply personal psychiatric records, as well as sexual and medical history sent to a total stranger. My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. What has SACAT done to rectify this error and ensure that it does not happen in the future?

2. What contact has the Attorney had with SACAT to discuss this error?

3. Does the Attorney have any concerns about the confidentiality and security of South Australian private information?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:23): I thank the honourable member for his question in relation to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. SACAT, as it's known by its acronym, helps people resolve issues within specific areas of law either through agreement at a conference, conciliation or mediation, or through a decision of the tribunal at a formal hearing. I know that SACAT, as all of our similar bodies in South Australia do, takes its responsibilities seriously in terms of maintaining confidentiality, and I know that SACAT was very concerned to learn that information was inadvertently sent to a wrong party recently.

SACAT has confirmed that on 5 January this year documents were accidentally bundled with other documents being sent to another SACAT participant, who became the recipient of those documents. Unfortunately, the recipient did not contact SACAT and did not identify themselves when they contacted a medical professional named in the documents. SACAT has requested, if possible, that the individual concerned return or destroy the documents.

I am informed that on 22 January this year the medical professional who was contacted by the incorrect recipient reported to SACAT that an unknown person had contacted them saying they had received information about another person. The medical professional advised the person to return the documents to SACAT or destroy them, I am informed.

I can inform the honourable member that, as I have said earlier, SACAT takes its responsibilities very seriously in terms of confidentiality, as we would expect them properly to and I think as people would expect to happen. Unfortunately, human error, although rare—given the number of reports we have of this sort of thing happening in a jurisdiction like SACAT—does occur, but I am informed that an investigation is now underway to determine exactly how the error occurred and whether procedures need to be changed in response to this error occurring.

Standard protocols include identifying the person who has been affected and notifying them the incident has occurred, and confirming that the person who received them has been directed to destroy the documents or return them to SACAT if such an incident should happen.

I am informed that SACAT has been in contact with the family of the person whose information had been sent in error and, as is entirely appropriate, apologised for the error. I am informed also that SACAT is reporting the privacy breach to the privacy committee. I am also informed that staff have been reminded of their responsibilities in this very important area.

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