At the APF’s AGM on 25 October 2016, three new Board-members were elected. Biographical details for Jake Goldenfein, Kate Mathews-Hunt and Holly Raiche can be found on the Contacts page. The APF now has 18 active Board-members, plus additional contributors on several Committees that focus on particular aspects of the wide array of privacy problems that confront the Australian public.
At the Board meeting following the AGM, Kat Lane was elected as the new Chair. Kat Lane has been a Board-member since 2013, and a Vice-Chair since 2014. She is well-known as Principal Solicitor of the Financial Rights Legal Centre. Vice-Chairs David Vaile and David Lindsay remain in place, as does Secretary/Treasurer Mark Walkom, and Public Officer Nigel Waters. Kate Mathews-Hunt was elected to the vacant Vice-Chair position. APF’s Committees have also had leadership renewal, with the International Committee now chaired by Angela Daly, the Telecommunications and Internet Committee by Holly Raiche, and the Surveillance Committee jointly by Adam Molnar and Monique Mann. Bernard Robertson-Dunn continues to chair the Health Committee, and Steven Roddis the Technical Committee. |
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On the afternoon prior to the AGM, Kat, with Roger Clarke in support, was before the Senate Committee inquiring into the 2016 Census. Unfortunately, the media’s interest that day was focussed on the operational fiasco, rather than the substantive privacy issues. APF has been asked to provide a Supplementary Submission, which will show that ABS has abjectly failed to respond to the propositions that its gross breaches of trust have destroyed the agency’s reputation, that the quality of the Census will plummet, and that its intention is to expropriate data from government agencies and build a massive database on everyone in the country. Here are the Campaign page and first Senate Inquiry Submission and Supplementary Senate Inquiry Submission |
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APF has been active in many other areas during the last few months. The PCEHR / MyHealth Record lumbers on, with the undertakings that it would be consent-based having been breached, and with incentives to unwilling health care professionals to enlist patients into the scheme, and load up their personal data. It remains close to worthless as a means of improving patient care. It is not even much use for its primary purposes of administration, waste discovery and research. Here is the MyHR Campaign page.
A further major activity, driven by Peter Clarke, was the Amicus Curiae Application to the Federal Court in the matter Privacy Commissioner v. Telstra. This is considering a key aspect of the definition of ‘personal information’.