Redress survivors' privacy breached

Survivors who have been betrayed by an institution have been let down by the very process that was meant to acknowledge and address that betrayal.

There have been 10 privacy breaches of survivors’ information by the National Redress Scheme since it commenced, a Senate estimates hearing has learned.

There were two instances in which the parts of the application which describe the impact of the abuse on the survivor were shared with institutions without the consent of the survivor.

And there were three instances in which requests for information were not correctly redacted and provided to relevant institutions.

The National Redress Scheme commenced in July 2018, and 9 of the ten breaches were reported to the Australian Information Commissioner.

Representatives of the Department of Social Services advised that the breaches were the result of administrative errors.

Another breach occurred when an application for redress was returned to the wrong applicant.

One occurred when a letter of offer to a survivor was sent to the wrong email address.

In another instance, two applications were sent to a third party unrelated to the application, by mail.

Two instances occurred when the Services Australia scanning centre lost an acceptance letter from a survivor, and an application from a survivor.

Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services, Linda Burney said the breaches were unacceptable and undermined the confidence of survivors in the scheme.

“People who had been betrayed by an institution have been let down by the very Scheme designed to acknowledge and address that betrayal,” said Linda Burney.

“Survivors, who have already been through so much, need to be able to count on this Scheme to get it right and not to add to their trauma.”

Representatives of the Department of Social Services issued an apology for the breaches through the hearing.

The revelations come on the second anniversary of the National Apology to survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

LINDA BURNEY

MEDIA RELEASE - THURSDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2020