Privacy bungle deepens
Andrews defiant as documents taken down
THE privacy of at least 20 Victorians was breached in a government document dump before the Parliament was forced to remove all the files from its website yesterday.
It is understood the documents, released by Premier Daniel Andrews in a botched political hit on Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, will remain offline until at least next week as parliamentary staff try to rectify the massive bungle.
The Premier continued to dodge questions yesterday about how and why the information — including financial and medical details — was made public, but declared he was “certain” the state would not be exposed to legal action.
It comes as News Corp can reveal the documents also included: THE resume of a property figure and correspondence on his suitability for a government board position; THE personal details of residents concerned about the former government’s plans to build the East West Link, along with internal emails discussing whether their details should be kept confidential on a departmental website; DETAILED notes and emails on the legal procedures for terminating the employment of the VicRoads chief executive; and, MOBILE numbers of current and former federal politicians including Greg Hunt and Andrew Robb.
The 80,000 pages were released by the Government to expose a $3.5 million taxpayerfunded settlement ordered by Mr Guy in 2013 to resolve a legal case sparked by his failed attempt to rezone farmland at Ventnor on Phillip Island in 2011.
But News Corp even found an email sent by one of the Premier’s policy advisers just last month, querying the budget for a heritage program.
The mother of Hollywood stars Chris and Liam Hemsworth was also caught up in the privacy breach.
Mr Guy said it was a “disgusting debacle” caused by a “sloppy, lazy, vengeful, nasty” government.
“It’s the lowest form of politics and I think Victorians are sick of it,” Mr Guy said.
“(People’s) whole lives have been put online, and all of this simply for political vengeance. That says so much about the Premier’s character.”
“They haven’t even checked it. It beggars belief that they could release so much information and not one of their 600 staff bothered to check it.”
Mr Andrews apologised for the “inadvertent inclusions in the documents”, adding he was confident Speaker Colin Brooks “has a process in place” to deal with the issue.
Asked if he was worried about legal action against the government, the Premier pointed to comments made by the Information Commissioner, who said the documents were tabled under parliamentary privilege, which meant he could not investigate.
Mr Brooks removed all the documents from the Parliament’s website yesterday.