Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor agrees to support the My Health Records Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill because we support e-health and the concept of the My Health Record. However, we have strong concerns about this government's implementation of the My Health Record system. To its core, My Health Records are about trust, and trust is hard-won and easily lost. This bill serves as another reminder of how this government is breaching the trust of the Australian people. That's why Labor has some comfort that there will be a Senate inquiry, and we will act to move amendments in the Senate.

It doesn't take a moment's thought to think of the trust issues around the My Health Record. We only have to go to historical breaches of trust in online systems. For instance, when we first introduced the online system in Victoria we had breaches occurring at local police stations. Police officers lost their positions because of those breaches and the public learnt not to trust online systems.

When Labor was last in office, we began the process of implementing an electronic health record system. Under Labor's plan e-health records were to be implemented under an opt-in system. This is the critical point where the public have now lost trust in this government. This is one of the examples where the public, rightly in my view, ask themselves questions about how far they can trust information that is given into a public space under this government. It goes to the absolute core of this—to the change from an opt-in system to an opt-out system. The public are rightly distrustful of the big brother notion that you must opt-out, that you must take action not to be involved, rather than Labor's original vision, which was to opt-in. Critically, an opt-in system means that a government, a system, would have to convince the public of the value of the system. An opt-out system suggests that the government doesn't care to relay the powerful positives of the My Health Record. Labor's vision had the potential to deliver tangible healthcare improvements and save healthcare costs through fewer diagnosis, treatment and prescription errors.

I still believe that that argument can be won with the public if they are in a system where they understand the positives of an e-health record system. They understand that in our modern world, where the notion of the family GP has changed over time, people are attending clinics and not necessarily seeing the same doctor every time they go to a clinic, and are not necessarily going to the same clinic. People will understand, I believe, the value of an eHealth system if they see that it serves them. Switching it from an opt-in to an opt-out system makes Australians suspicious that the system is designed to serve someone other than them.

This government—the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—is a complete failure in terms of trust and willingness to have a conversation with the Australian people to convince them of the good of this system. The botched rollout has breached the trust of the Australian people. The government has botched the rollout by changing the system from opt-in to opt-out without providing any explanation whatsoever, never explaining why the rollout became compulsory and never bothering to allay fears. The government's mismanagement in its failure to communicate this decision and provide an explanation for the rollout backflip has done nothing but undermine public trust in an important reform. They've failed to allay fears, and this bill does not, in my opinion, go far enough even now to allay those fears. Put simply, this rollout joins the government's woeful track record when it comes to IT security and people's privacy, and the government needs to understand that this is a compounded trust deficit that they are responsible for having developed.

And, although Labor welcomes the extension for the opt-out period, we have to stop and take note that, in this chamber, the member for Goldstein expressed concerns about the opt-out model. Those opposite who speak often and long about freedom of the individual fail to understand the importance of the freedom of the individual when it doesn't suit their agenda. This is how the public now perceives the My Health Record and that is incredibly disappointing. It plays into the broader issue of trust. This government has evolved a trust deficit with the Australian people. They have a terrible record when it comes to trust. People think that politics is broken, and this bill gives them reason. The government has stoked people's fears of the potential negatives, including people other than medical professionals accessing the data, such as insurance companies, prospective employers or law enforcement.

The government has a terrible track record when it comes to trust in the IT privacy space, and this has been brought about by their own actions, their own legislation and their own implementation programs. They have breached trust with jobactive, with most Australians believing that that system is failing. The Centrelink datamatching has caused enormous outcry because of its inaccuracy and because of this government's refusal to acknowledge that the data-matching system was flawed and take appropriate action to fix it. We even had, in that situation, the government releasing personal information about somebody caught up in the robo-debt data-matching scenario. So the government, by its own actions, released data to journalists and then, in relation to My Health Record, said, 'We're changing it from opt-in to opt-out, and bad luck if you don't like that.'

The trust deficit is an own goal for this government. The false robo-debt notices cut deeply in my community, and that is part of the trust deficit. In my community, when I talk to individuals, many were choosing to opt out of this system. We also had the fear of the short time lines for opting out. We had confusion and IT systems not being able to cope with the demand. We had people who wanted to know why, if their records were already there, they couldn't opt out or remove records from the past. On top of that, we had the census failure and a failed NBN rollout. It is not surprising that the public have lost faith in this government and anything to do with their privacy and their information and electronic systems. This bill, although we will support it and will put amendments in the Senate, does not go far enough. It is being driven by public anger. That's what has led to some amendments that are included in the bill that we're discussing this evening.

The requirement of a law enforcement agency to obtain a court order to access records seems, on the face of it, to be a convincing argument—that is, if the public trust the government. Unfortunately, at this stage, the public don't trust this government with their information. The bill also means permanently deleting the health information of people who opt out of the My Health Record, which, of course, the public cried out for. In response to that issue, we welcome this. But, as the member for Perth rightly said, what about the children whose parents sign them up? What will their rights be in the future around opting out and the records that have been developed? I speak to this bill with many locals—people who are concerned—in mind. They may have had a mental health issue in their records that they don't want made public under any circumstance. They value their privacy in interacting with the system and they're terribly worried that this would mean that their son or daughter may not seek the appropriate professional help to get past a mental health issue—'I can't go, mum or dad, because it'll be permanently on my health record.'

These are real concerns of the Australian public, and this government needs to demonstrate that they understand those fears and that they're prepared to change this legislation to ensure that people feel confident about this system. I'm afraid that the first step in that process will mean reverting to an opt-in process where people know they have a choice, where they make an informed choice and where they have the right not to be involved at all.

It doesn't go far enough in protecting workers undergoing a pre-employment or workers compensation medico-legal assessment. I have sat in my office with many constituents who are going through these processes. I've raised issues in this place about these processes. I've raised issues with my state colleagues about the way people are asked to interact with bureaucracies during these processes—particularly people who come to see me who may have had a physical injury and found themselves months later with a mental health injury as a result of interacting with that process. It doesn't go far enough to protect women—or any partners—fleeing from domestic violence situations, where privacy is of the essence. I recently sat with a constituent who, at that point in time, was living in fear because, through a process in the courts, her whereabouts and the whereabouts of her child had become known to a former partner through the release of where that child was attending school. These fears are real for people on the ground, and this legislation does not go far enough to assure them that this process won't leave them vulnerable. It certainly does not go far enough to protect children seeking privacy from non-custodial parents.

These are real issues, but the critical issue is the trust deficit that this government finds itself with. Even good ideas are being doubted by the public. This government has much work to do if it wants to create a system where efficiencies are built in. Labor believes that the My Health Record system is a good system and that the pros far outweigh the cons. I can give you a family example of somebody walking into a chemist shop where there is an e-Health record online and the chemist saying, 'I'm not sure that you should take that medication, given your heart history. I'm not sure that you should be taking that medication, given you haven't been taking your blood pressure medication for the last three months.'

These could be breakthroughs for people. They could result in a much better health system. They could result in efficiencies. They could result in better diagnoses as the health records develop. But, unfortunately, from my point of view, this has now been pushed back. Any future with these positives has become victim to the trust deficit of this government. These are serious things, and they are serious things that this government needs to take into consideration. They need to go back to the drawing board on My Health Record. They really need to determine that they will take it back to an opt-in process until they have the conversation with the Australian public and they convince the Australian public of the positives of the My Health Record. That may take years. But this side of the chamber won't be held accountable for the trust deficit, developed by those opposite, of people who feel that those opposite don't care about their privacy, being able to cite many situations where they feel that that is a truth in their lives.

We won't block this bill in this House because it does go some way. In my view it does not go far enough. In my view most of the members of the public that I've spoken to, most of the community members I have spoken to in Lalor, will choose to opt-out of this system. I think that's a negative in the longer term but it's this government's problem and they need to fix it.

See this speech in context