[Peetwo]

Additional Estimates - CM request...

Via the AP emails:

Subject: Upcoming Estimates Round - Legal And Constitutional Affairs - Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Dear Senators for NSW

I am a resident of Cootamundra.  This email respectfully requests you to consider raising, during the upcoming Estimates round, the question of chronic delays in the resolution of complaints submitted to Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

The background to this request is in the email ‘trail’ below.  In essence, I complained to the OAIC about the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s (CASA’s) use of highly sensitive personal information submitted by applicants for medical certificates.  That information is used by CASA in studies, without the consent of applicants.  CASA says it has the function of doing or arranging these studies (despite that not being mentioned in CASA’s functions in section 9 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988) and says it may do so without individual’s consent because the information is ‘de-identified’.  An FOI request for access to documents setting out CASA’s procedures for de-identification, records of ‘penetration testing’ of the de-identified information systems and records of audits of compliance with the procedures returned zero documents.  I complained to the OAIC.

Over five months later, the OAIC has yet to allocate a case officer to my complaint.  As I said in my most recent email to the OAIC:

Although I understand it’s a matter out of your control and probably as frustrating for OAIC personnel as it is for me, I can’t help but observe how Orwellian the description “Early Resolution Team” is in circumstances where a case officer can’t even be allocated, much less resolve anything, 5 months after a complaint has been submitted. 

I would like to know the OAIC Commissioner’s position on the allocation of resources to and within the OAIC. 

In case you consider my complaint to be trivial, I note that a substantial air safety issue arises.  CASA’s ever-increasing intrusiveness into individual’s medical circumstances and the use to which CASA now puts that information – without being able to cite its authority to use the information in studies and without being able to provide even 1 page of procedures about the de-identification and protection process for this most sensitive of personal information – are among the many reasons for individuals now withholding information from CASA.  Some individuals are too scared even to raise potential medical issues with medical practitioners, for fear of that getting back to CASA. 

I’ve been a pilot for nearly four decades and I’ve watched – in despair – at this sadly-justified deterioration in trust.  I can provide you with studies the results of which show how substantial the probabilities are that one or both of the flight crew of the aircraft you next board have medical concerns that have not been discussed with a medical practitioner or not disclosed to CASA.

Regards

Clinton McKenzie

MTF...P2