Premier’s staff in the loop on Daley data leak

Gladys Berejiklian’s senior staff knew former Labor leader Michael Daley’s driving details were about to be leaked.

Former NSW Labor leader Michael Daley. Picture: AAP

Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s senior staff, including her chief of staff, were made aware the private driving details of former Labor leader Michael Daley and his wife Christina were about to be leaked prior to it happening.

The leaking of that information to a journalist, along with the records of hundreds of motorists who sought help from their local MPs for speeding offences via a special hotline, are now the subject of a police investigation.

The leak occurred, as The Australian revealed last week, after Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello’s office was specifically told three months earlier by the head of his department to delete the file concerned because its possession breached privacy laws.

At that time, the provision of the file to the minister’s office was referred to the Privacy Commission.

Tom Green, a member of Mr Dominello’s staff seconded to the Liberal Party “dirt unit” during the election campaign when the document was leaked in a bid to smear Mr Daley, resigned from the minister’s office on Friday. He had been sent on voluntary unpaid leave following Tuesday’s revelations in The Australian.

But The Australian can reveal today that Liberal Party “dirt unit” operatives briefed Ms Berejiklian’s chief of staff, Sarah Cruickshank, and other senior staff of the Premier that they were planning to leak the story prior to its publication in February.

The revelation draws the Premier’s office into the affair for the first time.

The dirt unit, which included Mr Green and another former staffer, John Macgowan, were meeting Ms Cruickshank and other Berejiklian staff daily at 4pm at Liberal campaign headquarters, The Australian understands. A spokeswoman for the Premier’s office confirmed yesterday: “From time to time, tactics staff would update senior ministerial staff on stories they anticipated would appear in the coming days and on one occasion that included the SMH story regarding the then opposition leader.”

However, the spokeswoman claimed: “The first time the Premier’s office became aware of an alleged case of improper access and release of citizens’ data was when it received a letter from the then opposition leader following publication of the story in the SMH.”

The spokeswoman said that the Premier’s office was unaware of the referral to the privacy commission at the time.

Yesterday, at a press conference, Ms Berejiklian refused to deny when asked if she was aware that the material on Mr Daley and his wife was about to be leaked prior to details of his driving record being released.

“There’s a police investigation looking at that matter and I want to ensure the police investigation is able to do its due diligence and investigate the matter properly,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I want to stress, as I have from day one, our government, my government takes privacy issues seriously. If anything untoward has occurred and that is found out during the investigation, action will be taken.”

Asked again if she knew prior to the information being leaked that it was about to be, the Premier said: “Obviously our government takes privacy matters very seriously … and I want to say at the outset that myself or any member of my government would never, ever tolerate anyone doing the wrong thing, no matter who they are, and would never, ever do anything to harm anyone’s privacy.”

The day the story was leaked in February, Ms Berejiklian said Mr Daley had “legitimate questions” to answer. She said at the time she did not know where the information used in the report came from, but for Mr Daley to raise issues around privacy was like the “pot calling the kettle black”.

Police sources have indicated they will send the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation.

Asked yesterday if Mr Dominello should be kept in charge of the state’s data in his current role given the police investigation, the Premier said: “Absolutely. he has my full confidence.”