Privacy Commission finds serious flaws in Immigration Bill

Green Party MP Keith Locke has applauded the Privacy Commissioner for her forthright submission on the Immigration Bill, and for her finding that the Bill has given ‘insufficient regard…to respecting privacy within the necessary processes.”

“The Privacy Commissioner has issued a damning appraisal confirming Green concerns that the Bill allows too much information in immigration cases to be kept secret,” Mr Locke says.

“In her submission, the Commissioner says that over the past year, her Office has consistently expressed serious concerns in three main areas : the use of undisclosed classified personal information, the collection and widespread use of biometric information without explicit privacy safeguards and the sharing of personal information across a potentially wide range of agencies. These three privacy concerns, the Commissioner states, are still ‘pressing and substantial within the Bill as introduced.’

“The Government cannot ignore the serious issues raised by the Privacy Commissioner. We can’t allow the sweeping powers given by the Bill to the CEO of any government agency to be the arbiter of what is classified information. The Commissioner is justly concerned that any CEO may refuse disclosure ( about any operation affecting any function of any agency ) to people affected by decisions based on this secret information, and the Bill also removes the Commissioner’s power to intervene as a check and a balance.

“We agree with the Commissioner that the use of undisclosed classified personal information about an individual - affecting their detention and deportation - is in conflict with basic legal rights. We also agree with her misgivings about the limitations on the summaries of secret information to be provided to those affected : ‘In essence,’ the Commission says, ‘no balance has been struck between the requirements of privacy and those of security.’

“Such sweeping powers have no place in a modern democracy. Months ago, the Government boasted that its legislation will accord with international best practice. This Bill plainly fails that test. In its submission, the Privacy Commissioner points to misgivings that British and Canadian parliamentary committees have expressed about the workings of the special advocate system, one of the alleged safeguards for individual rights contained in the Bill. The Commission also rightly questions the breadth of powers to collect biometric information, and the lack of security around its use.

“Faced with this level of criticism from one of the key watchdogs in our system of civil liberties, the Government must recognize – as it did with its Electoral Finance Bill – the need for major change to the legislation over the coming months,” Mr Locke says.