Media Release

Australian Privacy Foundation press release

29 April 1997

Government Hypocrisy on Privacy

Just one day after promising to protect the privacy of outsourced government records, the Minister for Finance, John Fahey has outsourced his own department's records to a multinational data processing company.

"The Government has now completely lost its credibility on privacy protection," said Tim Dixon, Director of the Australian Privacy Foundation.

"Yesterday John Fahey promised that the Privacy Act would be amended before government-held records were handed over to the private sector. He stated that the Privacy Act would be amended to include private contractors. Now he has gone ahead transferring these records without putting any of these safeguards in place."

"The Government has already broken its election commitment to extend privacy safeguards for Australians to the private sector. Now it has broken another commitment less than 24 hours after it was made," Mr Dixon stated.

Mr Fahey stated yesterday on ABC Radio that the Government would "amend the Privacy Act to ensure that it applies to contractors in relation to personal information held by them on behalf of the government."

The Government's decision to outsource the Finance Department records was disclosed as a result of a leaked internal memorandum. The contract will include the complete personnel files of the Australian Public Service and details of all government contracts.

"Mr Fahey also stated yesterday that outsourcing of government records would go through a competitive tendering process, and that this would open opportunities for Australian businesses. Instead, it has signed over its records to a multinational company without any such process.

The contract for the Department's records has gone to ISSC, a data processing corporation which is majority owned by IBM.

The Privacy Foundation has called for the government to halt all outsourcing contracts until the Privacy Act is extended to cover the private sector, as was promised before the 1996 election.

Release April 29 1997 6pm

Contact Tim Dixon Australian Privacy Foundation 0411-114411.

Additional comments:
Chris Connolly, Australian Privacy Charter Council (02) 9262 4237
Roger Clarke, Australian Computer Society (06) 288 6916

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