❓ A parliamentary question regarding the standing down of a Department of Communities employee after a police raid, concerning the alleged removal of sensitive documents. The Minister details the department's response, including an internal investigation and criticises the opposition's handling of the matter.
AnsweredQoN 172Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
COMMUNITIES — POLICE RAID
172. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to reports today of the
impact a police raid has had on an employee of the minister's
department and reports that she has been refused access to detail of what she
has allegedly removed from the department.
(1) Why has she been refused this
detail?
(2) Why has this
employee been stood down without pay, given the police have elected not to
press charges and there is no criminal case to be answered?
172. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to reports today of the
impact a police raid has had on an employee of the minister's
department and reports that she has been refused access to detail of what she
has allegedly removed from the department.
(1) Why has she been refused this
detail?
(2) Why has this
employee been stood down without pay, given the police have elected not to
press charges and there is no criminal case to be answered?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I am happy to address this point, but it is
important to understand what we have made clear in the Parliament and
what the department has made clear when it has been asked to make comment on
this matter. Now that the police have decided—although I do note that
they said there was a prima facie case, perhaps for criminal charges—it
is not in the public interest to pursue those charges at this stage, the
Department of Communities will undertake an internal investigation to look into
the matters that prompted the complaint to the police in the first place.
I
reiterate, as I have done a number of times in Parliament and publicly, that a large
number of documents —some 2 600 documents—were sent to an
employee's personal email account with 5 000 emails. A number of those
documents contained some very sensitive information, including details of
children in care. It was the scale and
nature of those documents that led the director general of the Department of
Communities to first of all make a complaint, or to relay that
information, as he understands he is obliged to do under the guidelines of the Public Sector Management Act,
to the Public Sector Commission, the Corruption and Crime Commission and the police. However, now
there will be an internal investigation by the Department of
Communities. The Department of Communities, as was partly relayed in The
West Australian coverage of this story today, has advised that the Public
Sector Management Act provides guidance on the management of disciplinary
matters. There are standard time frames in which responses are sought, and
extensions of time are routinely requested and granted by investigators. Staff
are actually supported to engage with the employee assistance program and other
external service providers. The Department of Communities also ensures that
individuals who are at the centre of allegations are given a contact person within
the department with whom to communicate so they can make sure they are clear
about what is expected of them and can meet the expectations of the department.
All
Department of Communities staff are issued with a laptop and provided with
multiple pathways to access departmental systems so that they can work from
home. This is done to ensure that staff are not required to save sensitive and
confidential information to personal storage devices or send it through private
email. Staff are not authorised to access private and confidential
information outside approved departmental systems. Any attempt to do so is a breach
of the department's code of conduct. The Department of Communities
operates a professional IT department that includes an IT helpdesk that is
available online or by phone to respond to all technical issues, including help
for staff working remotely or from home. Remuneration of staff during any
disciplinary investigation is managed under the Public Sector Management Act.
The way the opposition has handled
this matter is interesting to me. We were in Parliament yesterday. This matter of the alleged breach of a large
amounts of sensitive information was not covered by The West Australian yesterday and so no questions were asked in Parliament. Nothing
arose during question time or matter of public interest business, but when
there is coverage in The West Australian , all of a sudden the opposition decides it has urgent matters and
needs to ask questions. That is how lazy it is. I thought that the Minister for
Mines and Petroleum summed it up very well in private members' business
last week when he said that what is happening in this Parliament is that the
opposition reads the newspaper and comes in with the news for the Parliament.
That is the opposite of what is supposed to happen. What is actually supposed
to happen is that the opposition does research, asks questions, conducts
investigations and talks to stakeholders and comes up with the news of the day, and that is then reported in the
daily newspaper, but not in WA.
This
has been a very difficult situation but I am not apologetic about the way the
Department of Communities has handled
this. There was a suspected breach of a large amount of information and some of
that was very sensitive information. We have an obligation under the
guidelines of the Public Sector Management Act to report that, as we did. We have an obligation to allow the police to
undertake its investigations, which the Department of Communities did. People would be rightly critical of us or
of the Department of Communities if we did not allow that to take place.
important to understand what we have made clear in the Parliament and
what the department has made clear when it has been asked to make comment on
this matter. Now that the police have decided—although I do note that
they said there was a prima facie case, perhaps for criminal charges—it
is not in the public interest to pursue those charges at this stage, the
Department of Communities will undertake an internal investigation to look into
the matters that prompted the complaint to the police in the first place.
I
reiterate, as I have done a number of times in Parliament and publicly, that a large
number of documents —some 2 600 documents—were sent to an
employee's personal email account with 5 000 emails. A number of those
documents contained some very sensitive information, including details of
children in care. It was the scale and
nature of those documents that led the director general of the Department of
Communities to first of all make a complaint, or to relay that
information, as he understands he is obliged to do under the guidelines of the Public Sector Management Act,
to the Public Sector Commission, the Corruption and Crime Commission and the police. However, now
there will be an internal investigation by the Department of
Communities. The Department of Communities, as was partly relayed in The
West Australian coverage of this story today, has advised that the Public
Sector Management Act provides guidance on the management of disciplinary
matters. There are standard time frames in which responses are sought, and
extensions of time are routinely requested and granted by investigators. Staff
are actually supported to engage with the employee assistance program and other
external service providers. The Department of Communities also ensures that
individuals who are at the centre of allegations are given a contact person within
the department with whom to communicate so they can make sure they are clear
about what is expected of them and can meet the expectations of the department.
All
Department of Communities staff are issued with a laptop and provided with
multiple pathways to access departmental systems so that they can work from
home. This is done to ensure that staff are not required to save sensitive and
confidential information to personal storage devices or send it through private
email. Staff are not authorised to access private and confidential
information outside approved departmental systems. Any attempt to do so is a breach
of the department's code of conduct. The Department of Communities
operates a professional IT department that includes an IT helpdesk that is
available online or by phone to respond to all technical issues, including help
for staff working remotely or from home. Remuneration of staff during any
disciplinary investigation is managed under the Public Sector Management Act.
The way the opposition has handled
this matter is interesting to me. We were in Parliament yesterday. This matter of the alleged breach of a large
amounts of sensitive information was not covered by The West Australian yesterday and so no questions were asked in Parliament. Nothing
arose during question time or matter of public interest business, but when
there is coverage in The West Australian , all of a sudden the opposition decides it has urgent matters and
needs to ask questions. That is how lazy it is. I thought that the Minister for
Mines and Petroleum summed it up very well in private members' business
last week when he said that what is happening in this Parliament is that the
opposition reads the newspaper and comes in with the news for the Parliament.
That is the opposite of what is supposed to happen. What is actually supposed
to happen is that the opposition does research, asks questions, conducts
investigations and talks to stakeholders and comes up with the news of the day, and that is then reported in the
daily newspaper, but not in WA.
This
has been a very difficult situation but I am not apologetic about the way the
Department of Communities has handled
this. There was a suspected breach of a large amount of information and some of
that was very sensitive information. We have an obligation under the
guidelines of the Public Sector Management Act to report that, as we did. We have an obligation to allow the police to
undertake its investigations, which the Department of Communities did. People would be rightly critical of us or
of the Department of Communities if we did not allow that to take place.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.