Chair’s Report to the AGM, by Anna Johnston

This is my first report as Chair of the APF – a role I have much enjoyed over the past year.

I would like to pay tribute to the enormous amount of work done by both our Board members and other members of the APF, working on various projects throughout 2005. It has been a very challenging year, with so many privacy issues in the public consciousness. This can be both a blessing (in terms of awareness-raising) and a curse (in terms of the workload presented!)

This report cannot do justice to all of the work done in the past year, so I wish only to highlight some projects by way of illustration.

Big Brother Awards 2005

The 2005 BBAs in Melbourne a few weeks ago were terrific fun, and garnered wide media attention (despite competing with terror raids of the same day). I will leave the BBA sub-committee to report early in 2006 by way of ‘debrief’, but at least wish to thank the sub-committee members David, Lindy, Jan and Nigel, and other volunteers Dan and Anthony.

Policy work – submissions and campaigns

By my count the Privacy Foundation has in 2005 written 41 letters and submissions, and 15 media releases, on topics ranging from the privacy of political donors to mobile phone cameras and silent telephone numbers; from the reviews of the Privacy Act to the horrific new proposals to strip away human rights in the name of ‘anti-terrorism’.

This count doesn’t do justice to many other types of policy work done ‘behind the scenes’ – such as sitting on consultative committees, speaking at other NGO forums, and our appearance this year before a Senate committee.

In 2005 we also launched a new “Campaigns” section of the website, focussing on 6 on-going issues: the census, e-health records, e-passports, identity cards, the various Privacy Act reviews, and workplace surveillance. Some campaigns are over, others will no doubt keep us busy in 2006 and beyond.

Happily there is good news. Together with other advocates, including Privacy Commissioners, public interest and civil liberties organisations, we have been able to make an impact.

The successes of 2005 – some of them mixed – include:

• no national ID card – this was beaten down as an idea almost as soon as it was resurrected, the Prime Minister nonetheless kept the idea on the agenda for his COAG national security summit – but the proposal has happily disappeared since, at least for the time being
• e-passports – although we haven’t yet seen the proof, it would appear that the DFAT finally saw the light and agreed to use encryption and other techniques to protect the security of the information to be stored in e-passports
• the census – we remain opposed to the proposal to radically alter the nature of the census so that responses are linked from one census to the next, and with data from other sources – but thanks to some very vocal advocacy the proposal has been scaled back from 100% of the population down to 5%, with no retrospective data-matching, and
• e-health – in NSW the Govt has moved back from its position of making electronic health records compulsory, to now being ‘opt out’

Nigel’s regular Policy Reports detail the vast amount of work done on so many fronts during 2005 – so much of it by Nigel himself, but plenty of input from other members too. However particular thanks to Nigel for both his input and his co-ordination role.

Media & education

Some further cause for cheer is what I believe is a growing awareness about privacy issues – and growing media interest.

Hits on the Privacy Foundation’s website are increasing markedly, with a 45% jump in the average number of pages viewed per day over the past 12 months.

Media work has become so voluminous that in 2005 we instituted a separate Media Report every 2 months (distributed to the Board and all members). I dare not count how many media interviews were given by various Board members. I suspect several of us are now on a few journalists’ speed-dial! Being receptive to requests for media interviews has proven an invaluable way for us to get our message out cheaply.

In particular, colleagues who were veterans of the 1987 campaign against the Australia Card proposal were amazed at the speed and depth of media interest this time around. Twenty years ago the campaign against a national ID card took months and months to garner any media interest; this time around the journalists were banging down our doors for comment. Within just a few days of Peter Beattie raising the idea in mid July, our Board members had done 11 print interviews, 9 radio pieces, and one television interview.

Public speaking requests also seem to be growing, and in 2006 we will need to finalise a position on speaking arrangements including fees.

Particular thanks to Roger and David for the continued work on the website, and to David for stepping in as next in line to take media calls when I have been unavailable.

2006 and beyond

We have just started discussing strategy for 2006 and beyond, with some ideas circulated to Board members in early November. These discussions will continue in the new year, once the 2006 office holders are known.

Particular thanks to Lindy for the usually-thankless task of co-ordinating our meeting agendas and minutes, and looking after communications with our members.

It has been a pleasure to serve as Chair of such a dedicated group of volunteer Board members. Thank you to both the Board and all APF members for their passion, enthusiasm and hard work. And all the best for a happy and safe holiday season – see you in 2006!