Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Since the beginning of this public health crisis, Labor has sought to work constructively and in good faith with the government to ensure that Australians are kept safe in this health emergency. As the Leader of the Opposition has said, on many occasions, Labor is looking for outcomes not arguments. That is the spirit in which we approached this bill and the government's contact tracing app more generally. Labor believes that a contact tracing app can be a valuable tool for protecting Australians from COVID-19. But it will only be a valuable tool if a sufficient number of Australians download it. The Prime Minister has said that 40 per cent of the Australian population need to download the app for it to be an effective public health tool. That means about 10 million Australians.

The government is well short of that figure, at the moment. About 5.6 million Australians have reportedly downloaded the COVIDSafe app. Now the Prime Minister appears to be walking away from his target of 10 million COVIDSafe downloads. He now claims that we only need 40 per cent of all smart-phone users in Australia to download the app. But that target is not based on science; it's based on politics. The truth is that many experts believe that the Prime Minister's original 40 per cent target falls well short of what is needed. Researchers at the University of Oxford, for example, have estimated that 56 per cent of the UK population would have to install a contact tracing app for it to be effective, representing 80 per cent of all smart-phone users in that country. Our own Chief Medical Officer said that in his view a good uptake of the app in Australia would be well over half of the Australian population.

Targets should be based on science not politics. So if the Prime Minister is serious about listening to the public health experts, he should be increasing his original target of 40 per cent of the population and doing everything to reach it. He should not be decreasing his target for political reasons. I say this not because I want the Prime Minister to fail. I say this because I want the COVIDSafe tracing app to succeed as a public health measure. To encourage as many Australians as possible to download the COVID-19 contact tracing app the public must have absolute faith that their privacy will be protected and that the data collected by the app will never be misused.

That is why Labor has worked constructively with the government to improve this bill prior to its introduction to the parliament, and we are pleased that many of our suggestions have been adopted by the government. As a result of our engagement with the government this is a stronger piece of legislation, which takes privacy concerns seriously. As a result of the government adopting Labor's suggestions, a number of changes have been made. There is now greater clarity about what data is protected by the strict privacy safeguards contained in the bill. The bill now provides for greater oversight of the COVIDSafe app and the handling of COVIDSafe data by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The bill now makes it clear that no intelligence agency or law enforcement body can be given a role in administering the COVIDSafe data store. Where it is unlikely to prejudice a law enforcement investigation, the bill now allows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to continue an investigation, even where the investigation overlaps with an investigation by law enforcement. And the bill now includes a number of public reporting requirements so that the Australian people can be kept informed about the operation and effectiveness of the app and the level of compliance with the privacy safeguards contained in the bill.

Necessarily, this bill was drafted quickly and it has not gone through the usual parliamentary committee processes of review. As such, it has not received the same degree of scrutiny that a bill would typically be subjected to. For that reason, my colleagues and I on the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 have indicated that we intend to oversee the COVIDSafe app by reviewing its rollout and investigating privacy and other concerns that have been raised in relation to the app. More generally, Labor will keep an eye on how the measures in the bill are implemented, in order to ensure that they are effective and are working as intended. We expect the government to do the same.

This bill does not address every concern about privacy and it does not address any of the concerns that have been raised about the technology. For example, while this bill will give the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner additional responsibilities, it will not provide her with any additional resources. Last Wednesday, the Attorney-General's Department told the COVID-19 select committee that there's no intention to provide additional resources. They said: 'The Privacy Commissioner is able to undertake this work within their existing resources.' With respect, that assertion is just not credible. The Privacy Commissioner, who is also the information and freedom of information commissioner, requires additional resources. We know this, because she needed additional resources before anyone had even heard of COVID-19. You don't have to take my word for it. Have a look at the transcript from Senate estimates last October, when the Privacy Commissioner told Senate estimates that her office was already severely under-resourced, before these additional responsibilities were given to her. The Attorney-General told Labor that his department, despite its evidence to the select committee last Wednesday, is now engaging with the commissioner to ensure that she has the necessary resources to perform the important oversight functions provided for in this bill. Labor looks forward to receiving an update from the Attorney-General over the coming days.

Following the passage of this bill, Labor believes the most important thing the government can do to encourage people to download the COVIDSafe app is to be open and transparent with Australians. To gain the trust of Australians, the Morrison government must trust Australians. Publishing the source code for the app was a good start, but it's not enough. The government must be as transparent as possible about everything to do with the COVIDSafe app, whether it be providing additional technical information in relation to the app or being up-front about how the app is working in practice. I might just say that in evidence to the Senate select committee there were considerable concerns about how well this technology actually worked. I know those concerns remain in place in many parts of the community. This is also a matter that the government must be transparent about and must do everything possible to fix. The government should be transparent about other matters, too, such as the reason it made the extraordinary decision to award the COVIDSafe data storage to Amazon Web Services instead of an Australian certified cloud service provider. That single inexplicable decision by the Morrison government has done more to undermine public confidence in the COVIDSafe contact tracing app than any of the app's fiercest critics. I know a number of my colleagues will be speaking on this matter. There is considerable concern in the Australian community about the government's decision to award this tender to an overseas based organisation. That is something we will be pursuing in the debate today.

The government must also provide the Australian people, including older and culturally and linguistically diverse Australians and Australians with disabilities, with clear, easy-to-understand, accurate information about the app. I was very concerned about the evidence of the Digital Transformation Agency to the Senate select committee last week, in which it was revealed that the app will be provided in English only. Obviously, for many Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds some form of translation should be considered for this app. I would urge the government to think about that.

Finally and most obviously, Australians will have no reason to download or keep using the app if the technology does not work or if it is not secure. For that reason, the government must urgently address the technical and security concerns that have been raised about the app by technology experts and members of the public. All you have to do is look at Twitter to see the comments that many technical experts and security experts have raised. Again, I would urge the government to take those concerns seriously. But, with those caveats, I commend the bill to the Senate.