Moreton Bay Regional Council admits using camera in neighbourhood dispute

A southeast Queensland council has admitted it has used cameras at least five times to gather evidence in neighbourhood disputes, and experts say it’s totally legal.

A SOUTHEAST Queensland council has installed ratepayer-funded surveillance cameras to snoop on warring neighbours.

The move is technically legal, but has raised ethical concerns from privacy experts.

Two neighbours in the leafy Moreton Bay suburb of Lawnton have been at loggerheads for over half a decade.

Privacy and surveillance laws set for shake-up

Candidates for the Moreton Bay 2020 local government election in ballot order

Tensions reached boiling point in November over a barking dog, leading Moreton Bay Regional Council to scale up its investigation and install a ratepayer-funded camouflaged wildlife camera on one of the resident’s trees to monitor his backyard.

“Council officers have installed a council owned camera at a residence in … Lawnton as part of a current Local Laws investigation,” a Moreton Bay Regional Council spokeswoman said.

“I can further confirm that this camera has been installed with the full permission of the resident of that property and is placed in a way that only records footage from within the yard of the residence it is installed in,” she said.

Moreton Bay Regional Council said it had used cameras five times to resolve issues of barking dogs. Picture: File.

But the camera’s neighbour says the device, mounted 30cm from the fence boundary, wouldn’t have been able to see his barking dog – unless it had been pointed over the fence, or had a microphone – which could listen to conversations on his private property.

A Moreton Bay Regional Council spokesman said wildlife cameras had been used five times since June 2018 in disputes over barking dogs, but refused to say how many times they had been used for other matters.

Meanwhile, nearby Brisbane City Council, the biggest in the country, confirmed it had not ever used surveillance cameras for this purpose.

University of Queensland law professor Dr Alan Davidson said councils were allowed under federal and state legislation to install cameras to monitor a disturbance, provided neighbours weren’t captured in vision or overheard in audio.

“Councils are bound by the Information Privacy Act in Queensland,” Dr Davidson said.

“Whether the use of a council camera goes one step too far, I still believe it’s legal.”

Experts said Queensland councils were allowed under federal and state legislation to install cameras to monitor a disturbance, provided neighbours weren’t captured in vision or overheard in audio. Picture: File.

Curtin University law professors Dr Anna Bunn argued it needed to be questioned whether it was a good use of ratepayer funds.

“I think it needs to be proportionate,” Dr Bunn said.

“Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily something people would expect or is acceptable to the community.”

Dr Bunn also raised the impact surveillance on people’s expectation of privacy in their own home.

“The thing about surveillance is it definitely can impact on people’s ability to be themselves,” she said.

“That’s where you get into problems, because suddenly (council) have images and sounds that really, arguably they shouldn’t have or are private.”