Labor demands inquiry into Liberal Party’s supposed data harvesting operation, claiming a new email address was sent political material

Labor is courting crossbenchers in a bid to force a parliamentary inquiry into allegations data has been harvested from government websites by the Liberal Party.

Labor is courting crossbenchers in a bid to force a parliamentary inquiry into allegations personal data has been harvested from government websites by the Liberal Party.

Premier Steven Marshall is being asked to explain Labor claims that personal information collected from a State Government website was later used to send unsolicited political emails from his Liberal Party email account.

Labor says it conducted a two-month investigation into data harvesting concerns raised by members of the public, and this showed a person who submitted their details to an SA Health website later began receiving emails from Mr Marshall’s Liberal Party account.

Labor is trying to convince the five lower house crossbenchers to vote with them to seize a parliamentary majority and force an inquiry.

This would centre on the claim that a pristine email account suddenly received the four unsolicited political emails after that email address was entered into the SA Health website.

A State Government spokesman has accused Labor of trying to undermine trust in health authorities, saying government websites were not used to collect data for the Liberal Party.

Labor bombarded Mr Marshall with questions about the Liberals’ data collection processes in state parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Marshall fired back, questioning whether the Opposition had been sending Labor staffers to protests against government initiatives in order to bolster rally numbers.

Premier Steven Marshall says no personal data was taken and the use of a Liberal Party website was a mistake that occurred during “copying and pasting”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

It came after reports emerged on Monday that people using government websites – for example to check COVID vaccine updates or look up road safety information – were unwittingly being redirected via a Liberal Party site that can be used to harvest users’ data.

Mr Marshall on Tuesday morning said the reports were “false”.

He said his government had not been tracking or collecting people’s data for the Liberal Party, nor had it been redirecting people to Liberal Party websites, when they clicked on government website links.

Opposition government accountability spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said Labor instigated an investigation in February after members of the public told them they have been receiving political emails from Mr Marshall, via [e-mail], despite not signing up for such correspondence.

Domain checks show the account is owned by the Liberal Party.

Mr Koutsantonis said a new email address was created in early February to test data harvesting concerns.

He said the new email account was typed into a “job alerts” section of the SA Health website and over the following weeks it received four emails from Mr Marshall’s Liberal Party email account.

“This email address has not been used for any other purpose aside from signing up for State Government alerts – yet suddenly, this email address is being inundated with Liberal Party political material from Steven Marshall’s NationBuilder website,” he said.

“Steven Marshall must explain how it is an email provided only to the State Government ended up in the Liberal Party database. How often has this happened?”

SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas says an inquiry must be held into how the NationBuilder platform was used. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Labor supplied The Advertiser with copies of the emails they say the new account received from the Premier. The newly-created email address was obscured in the copies.

Two emails related to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, another discussed the single-use plastics ban while a fourth spruiked the Liberal Party’s recent announcement that it would build an inner-city stadium if re-elected in 2022.

A government spokesman said the government “has not been using State Government websites to collect or track data for the Liberal Party”.

“Reports that this has occurred are false,” he said.

“It is disgraceful that during a global pandemic, when there is nothing more important than ensuring the public can get accurate information form verified sources, Labor have launched a baseless campaign to undermine the trust in our public health institutions.”

Meanwhile, the Opposition is calling for an independent inquiry into the Liberal Party’s data collection processes.

It is understood Labor is courting independents to support a Lower House parliamentary inquiry into the Liberal Party’s data harvesting processes.

Originally published as Labor demands inquiry into Liberal Party’s supposed data harvesting operation, claiming a new email address was sent political material