- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Assembly
- 14 September 2005
World War II Veterans Privacy
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 25 of 36
| Next Item »
Page: 17764
Mr ALAN ASHTON (East Hills) [5.32 p.m.]: Something that really concerns me is the presentation by the Australian Government of sixtieth anniversary medallions to eligible service men and women who participated in the Second World War. Along with the honourable member for Georges River, I have attended special presentations by the Federal Member for Banks. We have enjoyed attending those functions and presenting medallions and certificates. Members of this Chamber would be aware that the State Government has decided to award certificates to World War II participants in recognition of their service, including to the relatives of deceased participants. As we endeavoured to find out information to complete the process of awarding certificates to the veterans and their surviving relatives several people raised concerns. My Federal colleague Daryl Melham, the member for Banks, received a letter from Mr Ian Kelly, Branch Head, Commemorations, Department of Veterans' Affairs. I will read part of that letter, which I believe is of concern to every member of this Parliament. The letter states:
Dear Mr Melham
As you are aware, this year the Australian Government enlisted the support of all State Governments in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon De-Anne Kelly MP, has asked me to write to you to advise about an initiative of the New South Wales Government to commemorate and celebrate the 60th anniversary by issuing special certificates of appreciation to World War II participants.
No problem so far. The State Government has been asked to be active, and is doing so. But this is the rub, as the letter continues:
It is possible that you may be approached by your State counterparts seeking information about World War II veterans, widows and widowers in your electorate. Some of these people may have been known to you through this Department's list of eligible recipients for the 2005 Commemorative Medallion.
Where else would we get that information? The letter continues:
Your attention is drawn to the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 concerning the disclosure of personal information. In order to comply with the Privacy Principles it is essential that the information provided by DVA is used only for the purpose of medallion distribution and not passed to another party.
I am concerned about the absolute hypocrisy in regard to this issue. The Federal Government is in possession of information, through its Department of Veterans' Affairs, and has been involved with the State Government in recognising and awarding the medallions. Yet if I, as a State member of Parliament, want the Federal member to provide me with names of some veterans that cannot be done. We are told that under the Privacy Act that information cannot be provided. I ask the Federal Government: If that information is available to Federal members, why is it not available to State members? I make this point again—
Mr Thomas George: Ask your own departments to give you that information.
Mr ALAN ASHTON: I understand the interjection by the honourable member for Lismore, who would be embarrassed about this, but this is not about people's privacy. The veterans would be proud to be known as recipients of State awards; they have been known as recipients of Federal awards. But the information cannot be provided to the State Government to allow that to happen. For the information of the honourable member for Lismore I will quote again the first part of the letter, which states:
As you are aware, this year the Australian Government enlisted the support of State Governments in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Mr Thomas George: Not the names.
Mr ALAN ASHTON: The names are not secret, Thomas. My father fought in the war and he should be entitled to a medallion. Why should I not be able to access his information? But I cannot. The Federal Government has decided that it owns the names of those people, that those who fought for Australia were not from Victoria, or New South Wales, or Western Australia; they fought for Australia, and therefore that information cannot be passed on to the States. We can access web sites and obtain these names indirectly. The point I am making is that the Federal Government has embraced centralism to such an extent that we cannot access names to present people with certificates, but it can access names to present them with medallions. That is the lowest form of wedge and gutter politics I have seen for a long while. I call on the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the infamous De-Anne Kelly, to change her mind on this issue and to make those names available.
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:31:10 : Update this page