QC appointed to head inquiry into privacy leak
WELLINGTON: The inquiry into the Covid19 privacy leak will be headed by Michael Heron QC, with three weeks to report back.
The State Service Commission was brought in over the weekend after revelations of a major breach that involved the release of the names, addresses and location of the 18 people in quarantine last week after testing positive for Covid19.
Three media outlets have reported seeing those details.
A range of agencies could come under scrutiny. Health, police, the defence force, Customs and aviation security are all involved in the government response.
There is also the ‘‘all of government group’’ headed by former police commissioner Mike Bush, which operates as a unit within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The facilities being used for managed isolation and quarantine would also have access to that information.
Under the terms of reference finalised yesterday, the inquiry will look at ‘‘who or what caused the disclosure of the information, identifying what, if anything might have prevented this from happening and what, if any, improvements might prevent this from happening in the future’’, State Services Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday there were no political motivations behind the inquiry.
‘‘When we have leaks of a political nature, we don’t take those kinds of steps but when this is someone’s personal health information, we do need to take that seriously
‘‘I don’t think there’s any politics in that,’’ she said.
Mr Heron will use the powers of the state services commissioner under the State Sector Act 1988 and the Inquiries Act 2013.
‘‘That will give Mr Heron the power to, if necessary, require the production of documents, summons witnesses and question parties under oath,’’ Ms Ardern said.
There were a ‘‘number of potential theories’’ about how the leak happened, Ms Hipkins said, but he would not speculate.
‘‘Our primary concern is to find out exactly what happened . . . We will get to the bottom of how this data came into the public domain.’’
‘‘I think we’re likely to get close — if we can’t find out exactly what happened that would be disappointing.’’
He said media outlets had acted very responsibly by saying they would not contact any of the people whose names and other details have been leaked.
It was not known whether the information was leaked in a hard copy or electronic format.
It was unlikely to have been an accidental breach, however.
‘‘I don’t think that information tends to be accidentally sent to multiple media outlets at the same time,’’ Mr Hipkins said.
Officials involved had already ‘‘looked at all of the people who might hold this information, all of the ways this information is stored, to ensure that any immediate steps that can be taken to better protect it have been taken’’, he said, and was a reason the inquiry would be held with urgency.
The inquiry has a threeweek deadline.
Mr Heron is a former solicitorgeneral, who has carried out several highprofile reviews, including into how convicted Czech drug smuggler Karel Sroubek was granted residency, the fatal 2010 Anzac Day New Zealand Defence Force crash and Cycling New Zealand’s high performance programme. — RNZ