❓ Dr. Honey questions the Premier about a critical audit finding regarding the COVID-19 contact tracing system's data protection. The Premier defends the government's rapid response during the pandemic, citing global crises and criticising the opposition's retrospective objections.
AnsweredQoN 332Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — CONTACT TRACING SYSTEM AUDIT
332. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I note the release of the COVID-19
contact tracing system — application audit yesterday. The Auditor
General found that highly sensitive medical and personal information had not
been protected to the extent the community has the right to expect. How does
the Premier explain this shocking lapse of process?
332. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I note the release of the COVID-19
contact tracing system — application audit yesterday. The Auditor
General found that highly sensitive medical and personal information had not
been protected to the extent the community has the right to expect. How does
the Premier explain this shocking lapse of process?
AnswerView source ↗
The Department of Health has
responded to the inquiry and I am just trying to find its advice. It advised
that there has been no evidence of anyone
accessing anyone's personal information acquired through the contact
tracing system . It has worked with and implemented many of the
recommendations for this issue that were presented to Health by the Auditor General. If I could find the quotation
from Health, I would be able to give the Leader of the Liberal Party the
exact words of how it has responded to this matter, but, unfortunately, I cannot
find it at this point in time. In any event, Health has responded to it.
I just want to comment on the
broader issue. We had to put in place contact tracing very quickly over the
course of 2020 in response to a pandemic
that no-one in Australia or the world saw coming. We had to put in place a whole range of measures across the community, including contact tracing, with
hundreds of people engaged to do it. The workload at various points in time was
extensive, and sometimes it was not because we did not have COVID here at
various points in time. But we trained up a huge number of people across the
public sector as a surge workforce. We had various people working in Health who
were working on the issue and at various points in time, including still now in
some areas, we have contact tracing teams working on these matters. We also put
in place the app at restaurants, sport centres and various buildings so that we
could contact people should they have been at a venue when someone who was
positive was there.
We have to put ourselves back into
the situation we were in. There was no vaccine. On the television at night, we
saw islands in New York being used as mass graves. I remember watching news
bulletins on northern Italy with red over large parts of northern Italy, with
basically people dying en masse. I remember in China there were people
literally dying in the street with people stepping over bodies. This was going
on. In Britain, they have had the best part of 200 000 people or so die. In
America, as I said the other day, a million people have died. In its Civil War,
600 000 people died and 400 000 died in the Second World War in the American
armed forces. It has had a million people die, of whom at least 900 000 died
from COVID. That is the situation we have been confronting. It was not an easy
situation.
If the Liberal Party wanted us to
delay and say, ''We have to work this through; we have to get all these
things done. We have to have best practice and consultation on how we do it.
Let's consult on how we do it and do tender processes, though it might
take months, then work out all the fine points and protocols and so forth, so
we get this thing right'', it may have been six months or a year in
order to do that. In the meantime, a great many people could have died. It is all well and good to be an
armchair critic and look back and say, ''You should have done this
differently or that differently.'' Western Australia has had the
best outcomes of anywhere in the entire world. On a planet of seven billion
people, Western Australia came out on top. That is because we did difficult
things and we did them quickly, against the opposition's objection.
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN : And it does
not stop. The Liberal Party objected to what we did at the time, and now it
retrospectively objects. It is pathetic that the Liberal Party does this. It is
pathetic. Minister Cook, myself, the cabinet,
but especially Minister Cook, myself and some of the senior public servants in
Health and police went through some of the most stressful times one could
possibly imagine. It was sleepless night after sleepless night in order to try
to prevent the catastrophe that befell other parts of Australia and other parts
of the world occurring here. You come in here, an armchair critic who did
nothing to support us over the course of the last two years. You come in here
tut-tutting. That is what you do. I think your approach to politics is beyond
pathetic; it is absolutely shameful.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please!
Member for Wanneroo! Supplementary question?
responded to the inquiry and I am just trying to find its advice. It advised
that there has been no evidence of anyone
accessing anyone's personal information acquired through the contact
tracing system . It has worked with and implemented many of the
recommendations for this issue that were presented to Health by the Auditor General. If I could find the quotation
from Health, I would be able to give the Leader of the Liberal Party the
exact words of how it has responded to this matter, but, unfortunately, I cannot
find it at this point in time. In any event, Health has responded to it.
I just want to comment on the
broader issue. We had to put in place contact tracing very quickly over the
course of 2020 in response to a pandemic
that no-one in Australia or the world saw coming. We had to put in place a whole range of measures across the community, including contact tracing, with
hundreds of people engaged to do it. The workload at various points in time was
extensive, and sometimes it was not because we did not have COVID here at
various points in time. But we trained up a huge number of people across the
public sector as a surge workforce. We had various people working in Health who
were working on the issue and at various points in time, including still now in
some areas, we have contact tracing teams working on these matters. We also put
in place the app at restaurants, sport centres and various buildings so that we
could contact people should they have been at a venue when someone who was
positive was there.
We have to put ourselves back into
the situation we were in. There was no vaccine. On the television at night, we
saw islands in New York being used as mass graves. I remember watching news
bulletins on northern Italy with red over large parts of northern Italy, with
basically people dying en masse. I remember in China there were people
literally dying in the street with people stepping over bodies. This was going
on. In Britain, they have had the best part of 200 000 people or so die. In
America, as I said the other day, a million people have died. In its Civil War,
600 000 people died and 400 000 died in the Second World War in the American
armed forces. It has had a million people die, of whom at least 900 000 died
from COVID. That is the situation we have been confronting. It was not an easy
situation.
If the Liberal Party wanted us to
delay and say, ''We have to work this through; we have to get all these
things done. We have to have best practice and consultation on how we do it.
Let's consult on how we do it and do tender processes, though it might
take months, then work out all the fine points and protocols and so forth, so
we get this thing right'', it may have been six months or a year in
order to do that. In the meantime, a great many people could have died. It is all well and good to be an
armchair critic and look back and say, ''You should have done this
differently or that differently.'' Western Australia has had the
best outcomes of anywhere in the entire world. On a planet of seven billion
people, Western Australia came out on top. That is because we did difficult
things and we did them quickly, against the opposition's objection.
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN : And it does
not stop. The Liberal Party objected to what we did at the time, and now it
retrospectively objects. It is pathetic that the Liberal Party does this. It is
pathetic. Minister Cook, myself, the cabinet,
but especially Minister Cook, myself and some of the senior public servants in
Health and police went through some of the most stressful times one could
possibly imagine. It was sleepless night after sleepless night in order to try
to prevent the catastrophe that befell other parts of Australia and other parts
of the world occurring here. You come in here, an armchair critic who did
nothing to support us over the course of the last two years. You come in here
tut-tutting. That is what you do. I think your approach to politics is beyond
pathetic; it is absolutely shameful.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please!
Member for Wanneroo! Supplementary question?
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