Personal information including details of children in state care due to sexual abuse concerns has been wrongly released by Tasmanian government agencies, a damning Ombudsman investigation has found.
Random audits of four public authorities found error rates of 30 to 40% when releasing documents under right to information laws.
None of the errors had been detected by the agencies themselves.
The investigation, released today by Tasmanian Ombudsman Grant Davies, examined how public authorities handle personal information during RTI requests.
“The results of the investigation showed that the release of personal information in error during RTI applications was not an isolated issue but an uncontrolled risk which was happening with some frequency,” Davies said in his report.
“The public rightly expects … for their personal information to be appropriately safeguarded.”
The two most significant incidents involved the City of Hobart and the Department for Education, Children and Young People.
In June 2024, DECYP released names of children in state care and their family members to an RTI applicant.
The information related to children who had been placed in care due to sexual abuse concerns.
The department took over eight months to notify the affected young people of the breach, despite indicating early on that it would do so.
The City of Hobart released personal information of 10 private citizens in the same month, including names, home addresses and phone numbers.
The council had used a black marker pen for redactions that failed to properly obscure the text.
It did not contact any affected individuals or reissue corrected documents.
The council attributed the problems to “staffing issues” and “legacy issues” with records management, the report stated.
The investigation found 47% of public authorities had no written RTI guidance for staff.
Only five agencies had documented quality assurance procedures to prevent personal information being released in error.
A separate incident at the Department of Justice saw an unredacted document labelled “Final redacted” sent to a journalist.
The department declined to implement additional checking procedures.
Davies made five recommendations including mandatory checking procedures, written guidance for staff on responding to breaches and a review of redaction methods.
Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor called the findings “incredibly concerning”.
“It’s a farcical situation where information which should be released is being kept behind kept behind closed doors and personal information which should be protected is being released improperly,” she said.
Independent MLC Meg Webb called for a moratorium on budget cuts to the Ombudsman’s office and RTI staffing.
“Those shocking results show a system under extreme stress due to systemic neglect and under-resourcing,” she said.
“These findings are huge red flags which cannot be ignored.”
Webb noted the report follows an independent review of Tasmania’s RTI system by professors Rick Snell and Tim McCormack, released in September, which found a ‘culture of secrecy’ within government.
