More private details of Victorians have been uncovered in Daniel Andrews’s document dump
MORE private details of Victorians have been uncovered in Daniel Andrews’s document dump, including another home address for a lawyer.
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MORE private details of Victorians have been uncovered in Daniel Andrews’s document dump, including another home address for a lawyer.
Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings said this morning he was concerned about the breach of privacy and he would discuss with colleagues how to protect information.
He said the issue needed to be addressed to stop the publication of “potentially damaging or embarrassing” personal information.
MATT JOHNSTON: CITIZENS CAUGHT IN POLITICAL CROSSFIRE
ANDREWS GOVERNMENT PLANS TO CENSURE MATTHEW GUY ON VENTNOR
“I’m concerned about this because there should be a quality assurance process to protect everyone’s interests,” he said.
“There needs to be the appropriate protection of personal details.”
Contract details for consultants and lawyers have been “inadvertently” revealed by the Andrews Government, including home addresses and financial details.
The Herald Sun revealed that a mother’s details were laid bare, but this morning it has uncovered another lawyer whose home address was published by the government.
Earlier this morning Deputy Premier James Merlino eventually apologised to the woman whose private life was laid bare to the world as a result of a document dump ordered by Andrews.
Mr Merlino was grilled about the privacy breach, which saw the woman’s medical history, financial details, and even her young daughter’s name and date of birth released and posted online on Monday.
The Andrews’ government document dump is a political attack on Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.
Mr Merlino eventually apologised to the woman involved after several questions in the press conference.
He said her details were published “inadvertently” and that it was “unfortunate”.
DANIEL ANDREWS’ OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS APOLOGISE
Daniel Andrews’ office and departmental officials have apologised to a Victorian mum whose personal information was publicly revealed in a politically-motivated document dump.
“That’s inadvertent, that’s unfortunate,” he said.
“We’ve apologised to the person involved.
“I’ve not spoken to the person involved but I believe departmental officials and people from my office have.”
Mr Andrews said that the release was “inadvertent” and that he believed Victorians would be most interested in documents that revealed details Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s decisions as planning minister, not the privacy breach.
“All documents that relate to the Ventnor scandal were tabled and in the closing of a file years ago, the personal papers of a particular person were included in that file,” he said.
“They’ve sat there for years.”
Mr Andrews was pushed on the fact that the documents included the personal and medical details of multiple people, not just one.
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP says his office and departmental staff have spoken and apologised to a lawyer whose personal information was released in a politically-motivated documents dump @theheraldsun #springst pic.twitter.com/HGn7QYtb4Q
— Monique Hore (@moniquehore) September 5, 2018
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP dismisses calls from Opposition Leader @MatthewGuyMP to resign @theheraldsun #springst pic.twitter.com/PtUfg7pzr2
— Monique Hore (@moniquehore) September 6, 2018
Asked whether the documents risked exposing private details of others, he said: “all documents that had been filed under this Ventnor scandal have been tabled.”
Mr Andrews said it was a matter for Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings to decide whether to take down documents that reveal personal information.
Jennings said he would discuss the privacy breach with his colleagues this morning, and that the issue needed to be addressed to stop the publication of “potentially damaging or embarrassing” personal information.
“I’m concerned about this because there should be a quality assurance process to protect everyone’s interests,” he said
“There needs to be the appropriate protection of personal details.”
The Andrews’ government is now checking the other 80,000 pages from the Ventnor document dump to see if other personal details had been incorrectly published.
This audit would consider whether to remove dozens of pages of files on a separate legal case involving academic Dr Neville White, he said.
Overnight some of the documents that lay bare private details — including the woman’s financial details and medical history — were removed.
The woman, a leading lawyer, is understood to be appalled at the release of a financial advice document marked “private and confidential”, which was included in 80,000 pages of files lifting the lid on Mr Guy’s prior dealings as planning minister.
The lawyer’s home address, bank balances, share portfolio and superannuation details are also revealed.
However other sensitive documents, including a psychologist’s report for another Victorian, are still on the State Parliament’s website.
It is unclear how the documents were removed, given they were tabled by the Legislative Assembly, with some MPs believing the government would potentially need an order of parliament to have them altered or expunged.
MINISTERS WEIGH IN ON PRIVACY BREACH
Treasurer Tim Pallas described releasing personal information, including financial details, mental health reports and the name and birthdate of a lawyer’s child, as a “relatively minor breach”.
“The government did take the advice that it was given, when it received it, that there was a minor breach of data and we immediately took action with the clerks to have it removed,” he said.
“Only those documents that constitute a breach will be taken down.”
Asked whether the government could guarantee there were no other privacy breaches in the documents, Mr Pallas said it had done “as much due diligence to that material as it can”.
“As you’d appreciate with 80,000 pages it will take quite some time for everybody to work through it,” he said.
“The government is working through this data as it has been produced.
“We have taken our best efforts to make sure this data is adequately protected and ultimately you have to make a choice — is this in the public’s interest that the entire material be made public so that they can ascertain it and should we continue to take, as we do, due diligence to ensure that the privacy of individuals concerned has been protected.
“We believe we have taken the right balance and the right approach in this matter.”
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was disgusting Treasurer Tim Pallas had said it was just a ‘minor privacy breach.’
“It is disgusting term that it is a minor breach … claiming it is a minor breach says it all about the character of the Labor Government.”
He said the government’s drive for ‘naked political power’ had hurt so many Victorians on the way through.
Mr Guy also defended his decision to pay out $2.5 million in compensation over the botched Ventnor rezoning when he was Planning Minister in 2013.
He said court-ordered compensation would have been higher and pointed to a $60 million payout for the Bracks’ government’s handling of the nearby Seal Rock development in 2002 as a comparison.
But Mr Guy’s department told him in 2013 Seal Rock was not comparable to Ventnor.
“Sorry but I believe it is,’’ Mr Guy said when quizzed today.
Mr Guy warned that other personal information, not yet found, could among the 80,000 documents tabled in parliament.
“This disgusting debacle is a snapshot into the Premier’s soul,” he said.
“There is no Victorian he won’t hurt in order for his reckless pursuit of power.”
Senior government minister Jacinta Allan said it was “unfortunate” the privacy breach was exposed through the media, before the Parliament was given a chance to rectify it.
That was despite the government using its numbers to pass a motion which required the Premier to produce all documents relating to the Ventnor saga, which then saw the government include the woman’s private financial and medical details.
Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto said the state had been exposed to a hefty compensation payout due to the government’s rush to mar their political rivals.
He said even now there was a prosecution file available to the public, which included advice from the Director of Public Prosecution to Victorian Government Solicitor’s office on an unrelated criminal case.
“These are matters that should have never been made public, but in the rush to score cheap political points Daniel Andrews and his ministers have exposed the state potentially to a class action and litigation that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
WOMAN CONSIDERS TAKING LEGAL ACTION
On Wednesday night the lawyer caught up in the document dump was understood to be exploring what action she could take to have the information removed.
Other damaging documents that have also been released to the public — against constitutional convention — include legal files from a separate criminal case, pay rates for named contractors, and a letter insulting a magistrate.
Legal sources said the breach could spark civil or criminal legal actions, including for potential misuse of public office. And people who have been affected by breaches of the Privacy Act could stand to receive hefty compensation payouts.
Mr Guy on Wednesday night blasted Mr Andrews for “the most vile breach of privacy against ordinary Victorians”, which he said had been caused by the government’s “pursuing political vengeance at any cost”.
The Premier’s “disgraceful abuse of power has left (the woman’s) security and identity massively compromised”, Mr Guy said.
The documents were released after Mr Andrews ordered senior public servants to hand over thousands of previously confidential papers about Mr Guy’s botched rezoning of farmland at Ventnor, on Phillip Island.
The document dump, which included thousands of secret Cabinet documents, showed that Mr Guy had wanted to avoid court by settling a lawsuit related to the rezoning, and that taxpayers shelled out $3.5 million as a result.
But the 80,000 pages of documents also included details of the female lawyer, whom the Herald Sun has decided not to name.
The woman’s personal information is published without any redactions. It includes her date of birth, income, medical history, and the value of assets, from a car to investment properties. The documents also show her credit card balance, details of her mortgages, and insurance policies she held.
Also detailed are meeting notes and emails from a criminal case involving anthropologist Neville White, who pleaded guilty in 2013 to 46 charges over human remains — some Aboriginal — which he had kept for 30 years.
Among the files relating to Dr White’s case is medical information and an attack on magistrate Richard Pithouse.
Deputy Premier James Merlino said earlier this week the documents needed to be released, despite constitutional conventions protecting the confidentiality of Cabinet documents, to reveal more about Mr Guy’s “dodgy deal”.
The government has called on Mr Guy to resign and will move a censure motion in parliament on Thursday, which also demands he explain himself and pay back the $3.5 million used to settle the legal case.
But Mr Guy has accused the government of “throwing mud” to distract from the police investigation into Labor’s rorts-for-votes scheme.
The Herald Sun revealed on Wednesday that senior public servants, including Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles, told Mr Guy they had no choice but to release the documents in response to Mr Andrews’s order, in line with their employment contracts.
LEGAL FILES IN CASE OF HUMAN REMAINS TABLED
SENSITIVE health information and legal briefings in the 2013 case of an academic who illegally kept human remains have been released as part of the government’s dump of documents concerning Matthew Guy’s Ventnor planning decision.
La Trobe University emeritus scholar Dr Neville White pleaded guilty in 2013 to having kept human remains, some of them Aboriginal, but avoided a conviction or a fine.
The case was entirely separate from the Ventnor case.
But references, supporting statements and medical details in the White case were among the 80,000 pages of documents released by the government on Monday.
The files detailed that the case — the first prosecution of its kind — cost about $30,000 in legal fees and $2500 to prepare an appeal brief.
The Office of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria pushed to have the Director of Public Prosecutions appeal against Dr White’s sentence in a bid to secure a tougher penalty.
Email chains and letters reveal background briefings sent between the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office and the DPP.
Then Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion rejected the push in a letter to the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office’s Greg Elms.
“I appreciate that you and members of Aboriginal community will be disappointed by my decision not to appeal after reviewing this case,” he said.
“It will be of no comfort to those affected that I have been guided by long standing principles. In reaching this decision, however, I have an obligation to apply relevant legal principles to all decisions that I make,” Mr Champion wrote.
The Office of Public Prosecutions said on Wednesday that it did not know how or why correspondence to and from its office had been published in parliament.
A lawyer involved with the case refused to comment.
And Mr Elms had failed to respond to calls from the Herald Sun.
The documents show that, while Dr White pleaded guilty, magistrate Richard Pithouse dismissed the charges.
They also detail criticism of the decision from Aboriginal groups and the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office, which said Mr Pithouse was “overtly dismissive of the prosecution case from the beginning of the first mention when apprised of the case with no more than a copy of the summons and charges”.
The Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council told the DPP it was deeply disappointed and disturbed by the decision.
“We are strongly of the view that pursuing an appeal would be a measure for the effective protection and management of Aboriginal cultural heritage,” the council said.
“It may also be a vehicle to change attitudes towards a better understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal cultural heritage.”
Among a number of “community” statements, Taungurung man Mick Harding said the law was a “joke”.
“I think the judge that heard this case would fit into the apartheid system of South Africa, the civil rights of North America, and the racist half caste acts that have been acted in this
country in recent times,” Mr Harding said.
“This is a denigration of our human rights.”
Dr White could not be reached for comment by the Herald Sun on Wednesday.
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