Melville Council asked to address Privacy issues

Melville CEO Marten Tieleman has failed to satisfactorily RESOLVE a number of complaint about incidences with Privacy breaches and transparently correct the City’s processes to address the underlying causes of those breaches.

So, Council must step in to provide CEO Marten Tieleman guidance on how he must protect the privacy of our personal information.??

Privacy is a basic human right. Clearly, all Electors at the AGM agreed as the motion was carried UNANIMOUSLY without fuss.

The Minutes and audio recording of the AGM can be found at: Minutes:?https://www.melvillecity.com.au/our-city/our-council/agendas-and-minutes/annual-general-meeting-of-electors/2023/february/minute-annual-general-meeting-of-electors-6-februa Audio (from circa 01:34:00 on):?https://www.melvillecity.com.au/our-city/our-council/agendas-and-minutes/annual-general-meeting-of-electors/2023/february/audio-recording-annual-general-meeting-of-electors

Read what we, the MRRA through one of our members, said to convinced Electors to UNANIMOUSLY vote for the motion:

"Canva, Optus, Medicare, ProctorU, Australian National University, Service NSW, Australian Parliament House, WA Parliament, the list can go on.

"All these entities relate to the personal information of private individuals being made public. I am sure a number of you have been caught-up in some of these disasters.

"The City of Melville should be added to this list, albeit to a lesser extent, as it has over the past few years published personal and confidential information without the consent of the people involved.

"Our personal privacy is a basic human right; as the Australian Human Rights Commission has stated:?

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.
• Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

"In Australia, there is a Federal Privacy Act which was introduced to promote and protect the privacy of individuals and to regulate how Australian Government agencies and organisations with an annual turnover of more than $3 million, and some other organisations, handle personal information.

"The Privacy Act defines “personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

1. whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
2. whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.”

"That is personal information is more than just your name and address, it goes well beyond that.

"The Privacy Act itself contains many clear principles to guide the way organisations manage Privacy; including principles relating to:

"Anonymity: requires affected entities to give individuals the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, with limited exceptions.

"Use or disclosure of personal information: outlines the circumstances in which an entity may use or disclose personal information that it holds.

"There are penalties under the Federal Privacy Act.

"The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC), that also in Victoria has the mandate to oversee and govern Privacy in that State, has provided specific guidance to Victorian Local Governments including:

“When making personal information publicly available in accordance with a council’s public transparency policy, councils and councillors should provide individuals the opportunity to remain anonymous unless expressly required to publish or disclose personal information under the LG Act or other relevant legislation. As far as possible, documents should be published in a privacy-enhancing manner.”

"Also they say?

“Where it is lawful and practicable, individuals should be allowed to engage anonymously with councils as required by IPP 8. This is intended to maximise individuals’ ability to control their personal information. It can also minimise the amount of personal information councils collect thereby minimising the risk of harm caused by a data breach.”

"Hopefully those words ring in your ears.

"Sadly, the Federal Privacy Act does not apply to WA Local Governments and the WA State Government has no specific Privacy legislation or Commissioners to give effect to the Privacy Act’s overarching principles. In WA there is some limited privacy related legislation bound up in the FOI Act; but this only relates to FOI Applications for information and not information disseminated outside of the statutory FOI processes.

"Here at the City of Melville we have seen some indications of things that are very concerning:?

• City officer, Elected Members’ apparent lack of understanding of what personal information is.
• The City’s publishing personal information on their website without the consent of the affected individuals.
• The City routinely demanding residents identify themselves publicly, vs maintaining their right to anonymity, as our human rights suggests.
• The City administration making recommendations to Council to publish personal information without the consent of the affected individuals.
• The City’s administration accessing emails between residents and Elected Members without the knowledge of those parties. Residents and Elected Members need to feel confident their communication is not being monitored by the ‘big brother’ administration.

"The City of Melville does not have a Council policy on Privacy and the protection of Personal Information. The City has a history of publishing Personal Information without the consent of the parties or a statutory requirement to do so.

"Our Council has the power to implement a policy that adopts and enshrines the Australian Privacy principles into our City.

"Other WA Local Governments Councils, such as Cottesloe, have done just so. So there is a strong argument for our Council consider doing the same.

"If you care about the privacy of your personal information, then please vote for this motion."

Thank you.