2016-09-05
Ms Nina Springle (South Eastern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Families and Children. On 13 July this year Fairfax Media reported massive privacy breaches at the Department of Health and Human Services, breaches which have disclosed to inappropriate persons both the addresses of children in out-of-home care and the names and contact information of carers and professionals associated with children in the child protection system. These privacy breaches have since been found to go back at least a decade, so they have occurred under this government, they occurred under the Baillieu-Napthine governments and they occurred under the Bracks-Brumby governments. Privacy breaches such as those reported in the Age have clearly placed children and indeed carers and professionals at significant risk and have thus undermined the whole edifice of the child protection system. What measures, if any, has the Department of Health and Human Services put in place since 13 July to prevent the disclosure to inappropriate persons of addresses of at-risk children?
Ms Nina Springle (South Eastern Metropolitan) --- I thank the minister for her answer. Part of the problem seems to be that child protection report forms have been shared too widely, and of course those forms contain huge amounts of information about each protected child and the carers and professionals involved in his or her case. Has the department changed the practice where the carers' and professionals' names are automatically included on the child protection report in the interim while this review has been underway?