During a recent office refurbishment in Alice Springs a contractor accidentally took three filing cabinets along with other furniture for disposal, to the Alice Springs Waste Management Centre.
A number of Territory Families’ documents were identified in a cabinet, by a member of the public visiting the centre as potentially confidential. This person acted to secure the documents with the Waste Management Centre Operator and to notify Territory Families.
The documents were immediately recovered by Territory Families and the NT Information Commissioner informed on the same day. Advice from the NT Information Commissioner was sought as to the best practice response in relation to this matter.
Territory Families takes its responsibility to safely handle confidential information very seriously and immediately launched an Internal Investigation into how the documents came to be disposed of. An External Investigation was then undertaken by a lawyer from the Solicitor for the NT to validate the investigations’ findings.
Both investigations concluded that the loss was accidental. To the best of Territory Families’ knowledge, the information was unlikely to have been disclosed to third parties or copied in any way.
The Chief Executive Officer of Territory Families is contacting every individual whose personal information was contained in the documents, to apologise and provide information regarding this incident and their right to complain to the NT Information Commissioner.
Eight recommendations were made in the Internal Investigation to improve process and procedures regarding the care of documents and office refurbishments. Seven of the eight recommendations have been implemented with the final in progress.
Territory Families apologises for any concern this may have caused.
A summary of recommendations from both investigations, along with redacted copies of the Internal and External Investigation reports are available on the Territory Families website at https://territoryfamilies.nt.gov.au/about/publications-and-policies/other-reports.
Note: Both Internal Investigation and External Investigation documents have been redacted to protect the privacy and confidentiality of all persons named, to meet the requirements of privacy laws.
Territory Families media contact: Christine Bond 8999 2940, 0475 953 571 or email: TF.media@nt.gov.au