Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend business of the Senate notice of motion No. 4, standing in my name for today, proposing a reference to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee, by omitting '13 September' and substituting '16 October'.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the following matter be referred to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee for inquiry and report by 16 October 2017:

Circumstances in which Australians' personal Medicare information has been compromised and made available for sale illegally on the 'dark web', including:

(a) any failures in security and data protection which allowed this breach to occur;

(b) any systemic security concerns with the Department of Human Services' (DHS) Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) system;

(c) the implications of this breach for the roll out of the opt-out My Health Record system;

(d) Australian government data protection practices as compared to international best practice;

(e) the response to this incident from government – both ministerial and departmental;

(f) the practices, procedures, and systems involved in collection, use, disclosure, storage, destruction, and de-identification of personal Medicare information;

(g) the practices, procedures, and systems used for protecting personal Medicare information from misuse, interference, and loss from unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure; and

(h) any related matters.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This matter is subject to an active and ongoing Australian Federal Police investigation. The independent Shergold review announced by the government has commenced and will report back by the end of September 2017. The review panel includes the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Any inquiry prior to the review and the AFP investigation is unnecessary at this time. Further, another referral would only add to the existing workload of Senate committees and the committee secretariat, in particular.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that business of the Senate notice of motion No. 4 moved by Senator Di Natale, as amended, be agreed to.

I will indicate to senators that there may be further divisions and, under standing order 101, bells will be rung for one minute. If we could now move to general business notice of motion No. 396, standing in the name of Senators Macdonald and O'Sullivan. Sorry, Senator Macdonald. I will come back to you a bit later. I'm sorry, but because of the discussion we had earlier, I've rearranged the order again and I'm going back to my order. I will now call Senator Wong on notice of motion No. 399.