The territory's democracy will be fundamentally eroded by a motion calling on members of the Legislative Assembly to reveal whether they accessed a spreadsheet containing details of thousands of ACT workers' compensation claims, the Deputy Opposition Leader has said.
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Giulia Jones said she would not be responding to the request, which was passed by the Assembly in November, and accused the government of using Speaker Joy Burch "for its own dirty work".
"I am aware that the government will then point the finger claiming I leaked the information to The Canberra Times, and embarrassed the ACT government - anything to muddy the waters and share the blame," Mrs Jones said.
"I am happy to tell the people of Canberra I did refer a constituent to the government's tenders website."
The ACT government last year pointed to a breakdown in communications between procurement officials as the reason a spreadsheet which contained details of about 30,000 workers' compensation claims was uploaded to a public website.
A spreadsheet containing the details of thousands of workers' compensation claims between 1989 and 2018 was uploaded to the territory government's tender site in 2018.
While the names and birthdates of workers were removed in an effort to de-identify the data, it contained intimate details of their claims, including the injury date and type, location on the body and the financial compensation received.
The spreadsheet also included the person's birth year and gender as well as occupation details, including the directorate they were employed in and their job title.
It was removed from the website following enquiries from The Canberra Times.
Special Minister of State Chris Steel referred the release of the information to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to determine whether it amounted to a privacy breach.
Mr Steel had earlier denied it was a privacy breach and said the government would conduct an internal review.
Eight unique users of the tenders website downloaded the spreadsheet a total of 16 times. The data was removed from the tenders website on May 30, 2018, but became available again after a system upgrade on February 29, 2020, the government's timeline said.
Mr Steel said any members who found publicly available information they believed was inconsistent with privacy rules should draw it to the immediate attention of the government and privacy regulators.
But Mrs Jones said the motion, which was amended by Mr Steel, eroded a "fundamental element of our democracy".
"Individual citizens have a right to go to their elected member of parliament and raise issues in absolute privacy. That is their voice, and it must be protected."
Mrs Jones said the motion, which required Speaker Joy Burch to instruct members to reveal whether they had leaked the spreadsheet, was designed to shift the blame.
"Under our system of government, the Speaker is supposed to stand above party politics, but here we see the government using the Speaker for its own dirty work."
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Ms Burch on Thursday said it was always the practice for the Speaker to circulate resolutions passed in the Assembly to members.
The Speaker wrote to members on December 7 to clarify how to respond to the motion, suggesting "that Members may wish to inform the Assembly what action they have taken in response".
Ms Burch told The Canberra Times: "No further correspondence has been sent regarding this matter and it is indeed up to members to update the Assembly."
Compliance with the motion would erode the parliamentary privileges of every member of the Assembly, a memorandum prepared for Mrs Jones argues.
Parliamentary privilege protects freedom of speech and debates within the Assembly, and protects in certain cases information provided by the public to members.
To comply with the motion "could result in similar motions in the future that required disclosures to otherwise protected interactions with constituents, public officials and journalists", the memorandum said.
Mr Steel said the ACT government would respond to all points in the motion in the February sittings.
"If Ms Jones believes she has a basis for claiming parliamentary privilege, she should make that case to the Legislative Assembly," Mr Steel said in a statement.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
