Thursday, 23 February 2023

Petitions

Health Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2023

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) presented a petition bearing 10,790 signatures:

The Petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the significant privacy concerns with the proposed Health Legislation (Information Sharing) Bill 2023.

The Bill would require participating health services to upload all relevant health information to a central Government-run database accessible to health workers. Patient consent is not required and there is no ability to opt out or chose to restrict access to health information that might be sensitive in nature. There are many reasons people might not want to disclose certain sensitive information to different doctors or clinicians.

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights identifies privacy as one of the seven key pillars. This proposed legislation fundamentally undermines this right and several organisations raised concerns when similar legislation was proposed in 2021, including Liberty Victoria, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Victorian Healthcare Association, the Health Issues Centre and the Australian Privacy Foundation.

The Federal Government’s My Health Record database manages privacy much more carefully, allowing patients visibility on who accesses their information and allows them to choose which records and documents are accessible.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Government to amend the Health Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2023 to ensure that patient consent and privacy is maintained in line with the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights.

David LIMBRICK: As this is a petition qualifying for debate under standing order 11.03(10), I give notice that I intend to move ‘That the petition be taken into consideration’ on Wednesday of next sitting week.

The PRESIDENT: The petition will be listed on the notice paper for debate during petitions qualifying for debate.