Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I just wanted to make sure all the veterans out there are listening to me because you are going to not want to know about this if you don't already. Remember the Optus data breach? Remember the Medicare data breach? Both of those cases have resulted in class actions. I will say that word again—class actions—because it is going to get very important against the companies not properly protecting the data of their customers. What if I was to tell you that a government funded agency had shared the data of about 300,000 Australian veterans without their consent? Last weekend, I picked up the Saturday Paper, and the story of the MATES program made my hair stand on end. Every time I hear another horror story about the Department of Veterans' Affairs and their treatment of veterans, I think, 'It surely cannot get any worse.' And then there's another horror story, and it's always worse.

I would like to acknowledge journalist Rick Morton for bringing this shocking story to light. Morton has found out that the medical records of 300,000 veterans have been handed over by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to the University of South Australia without—guess what?—the knowledge or consent of those veterans. This data includes you, veterans—your name, your birthdate, your family status, your hospital records, your pharmacy records, any sexual health treatment you've had, any drug addiction you may have had, your mental health services and anything else that may have been in your documents.

How did this happen? In 2014 John Howard—God bless Prime Minister John Howard!—launched the Veterans' MATES program. MATES stands for medicines, advice and therapeutics education services. The idea was to share veterans data to:

… evaluate treatments and treatment approaches, identify problems with medications … and support evidence-based education for doctors and health practitioners.

A source who spoke to the Saturday Paper said:

For the puffery that the department put out about improving health outcomes, the objective overwhelmingly of the MATES program appears to be one of costs reduction and control.

This program has been running for 20 years. For 20 years this deeply personal information has been shared without the knowledge or consent of the veteran community.

I was medically discharged in 2000. Since then, my medical records have been routinely collected by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. But I'll tell you what: nobody ever asked me if they could share my medical records. And I bet, to the 300,000 other veterans out there, they didn't ask you either. They didn't ask you. According to the story in the Saturday Paper, my medical records were being routinely disclosed on a monthly basis to the University of South Australia.

The Human Rights Commission approval for the MATES program in 2004 was on the basis that veterans would be able to opt out—except that neither the DVA or the goddamn University of South Australia ever ran an opt-out process, let alone asking us to opt in. They didn't even bother, over sensitive medical information. The DVA is a Commonwealth department, and it has an obligation under the Privacy Act 1988 to safeguard personal private information.

How do we know about this? Because a veteran six years ago got an alert from the MATES program saying they had disclosed his personal medical information to his pharmacist and his doctor. The veteran put in a complaint and an FOI request asking what had been disclosed. That was in 2017. In the six years since then, the DVA has refused to stop the data handover, asserting that it was within its rights to do what it wanted with the medical records and didn't need the consent of its clients. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner found in April that the department had 'interfered with the complaint's privacy' and breached two key elements of the Australian Privacy Principles. According to the report in the Saturday Paper, it appears that the DVA was dishonest—what's new!—with both the veteran and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

DVA claimed:

… participants in the MATES program are aware that they can, at any time, revoke their consent to use and disclosure of their personal information.

How about you tell us you were doing it first? I'm fuming. I am fuming that you had my medical records and you passed them over to a bloody university. How dare you? How dare you! I'm telling you now, veterans, I'm getting lawyers' advice. There will be more to come, but I've had a gutful. I've had a gutful of the DVA sharing some of the most sensitive information of mine and of 300,000 veterans out there. The gloves are off.