THE ALP has secretly recorded the personal details of tens of thousands of Victorians - including sensitive health and financial information - in a database being accessed by campaign workers ahead of this Saturday's state election. In a rare insight into personal profiling by the major parties, The Age has gained access to the database used by the ALP to tailor its telephoning and door-knocking of individual voters in key marginal electorates.
The Coalition has a database capable of similar profiling of voters, but has refused to comment or to divulge any details.
The Age investigation has revealed how Labor is building profiles of constituents based on its communications with MPs, attendance at rallies, membership of groups, letters to newspapers and through polling and surveys.
Staff in MPs' electorate offices are believed to be primarily responsible for collecting personal information dating back up to a decade.
The system allows searches based variously on people's names, addresses and their stances on issues such as gay rights and the environment. It also enables mapping of campaign street walks, giving candidates and volunteers access to profiles on many of the people they door-knock or phone - including their voting intentions.
It shows how Labor campaign workers have access to details of private lives of voters, including information people may have intended to share only with the offices of local MPs. Database entries seen by The Age include details of a family's concern about an East Malvern man's prostate cancer, a man's financial problems after he purchased a gaming agency, a Brighton family's complaint about superannuation payments, and details of a woman's victims of crime compensation claim.
The major parties have different versions of the software - Electrac for the ALP and Feedback for the Liberals - enabling the creation of detailed, cross-referenced files on constituents.
The software attracted controversy when it was introduced in the mid-2000s, with lawyers and academics expressing privacy concerns. Both parties have defended the databases, claiming they enhance the electoral and political process. But little has been known until now about how the software is used.
Voters on the Electrac database contacted by The Age all confirmed they had not given authority for details of their political activity or attitudes, or contact with their MP, to be filed.
Sam Waszaj, of Travancore, near Flemington, expressed dismay that his correspondence with a federal minister about Medicare funding for late abortions led to a database entry.
''The minister wrote back to me and said Labor was happy to hear my concerns. But they never said to me, 'Oh, by the way, we will store this on a big database','' Mr Waszaj said.
''This is what the KGB used to do. Who has access to this information? How will it be used in the future?''
Several voters in Northcote are listed in the ''hard green movement'' due to their membership of a climate change action group. Others are listed as having passed information to their MP about ''corruption in high security prisons''.
Records are kept in marginal seats on constituents' voting intentions, including the strength of their support for a party. Those rated as ''soft'' Liberal supporters, or ''at risk'' for Labor, are likely to be repeatedly canvassed.
Exposure of these records raises thorny questions for Labor about how the information was gathered and the appropriateness of it being made widely available in the party.
Some voters whose participation in ALP polling led to their views being stored on the database said pollsters had not identified their party connection.
Despite the objections of civil liberty campaigners, such activities are not illegal. Political parties and MPs are exempt from privacy laws that restrict record-keeping by others including government departments, the police and local councils.
Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, SC, said yesterday The Age revelations highlighted the inadequacies of privacy laws. ''If a state or federal department or a business with turnover of $3 million or more did that they would be in breach of either the state or federal privacy acts,'' he said.
Mr Pearce said it was troubling that personal information given in confidence was being used for political purposes.
Victoria's Privacy Commissioner, Helen Versey, said she had no jurisdiction over political parties because privacy laws only applied to the public sector. But she referred The Age to the Australian Law Reform Commission's August 2008 report, which examined the use of political databases.
The commission said it was not convinced that data collection by parties should be exempted from privacy laws. It recommended that parties should tell people what information would be held about them, give them the right to access and correct such information and to take steps to ''ensure the quality and security of the information''.
Sam Morrisson, of Clifton Hill, is recorded on the Labor database as having contacted the office of her local MP, Richard Wynne, in July 2008 over concerns about the working conditions of paramedics.
''I am surprised they kept that on a central system,'' she said. ''I don't see it as sinister, but it should be a matter of course that they would say, 'This is going down on a database'.''
Elizabeth Bodkin-Moore, also of Clifton Hill, said she should have been told that a record of her emails to her MP on environmental issues would go on the database. ''At one level, I am happy with it being recorded. But I think that it is appropriate that there is some indication that it will be put on file,'' she said. ''If this stuff is being put on long-term files, who knows what will happen to it in the future.''
The Greens candidate for Northcote, Anne Frances Martinelli, is recorded as having ''attended Chandler Hwy public meeting'' in October and having written letters to newspapers about environmental issues. ''A lot of people would feel uncomfortable that this sort of information is being held by a private organisation,'' she said.
Labor state secretary Nick Reece last night defended the use of the database. ''Like all political parties, the ALP phones people as part of election campaigning. It complies with all privacy laws and other tele-marketing regulations.''
Asked about party volunteers having access to highly personal information on voters, Mr Reece declined to comment.
Liberal state director Tony Nutt refused to comment when asked about the Coalition's database and its profiling of voters.
theage.com.au 23 Nov 2010
The way of the New World Order, to catalogue EVERYONE, under ANY pretext.
It is the sheer indifference of everyone that makes this a quicker reality.
New powers to the invasion of person / property are drafted in the name of terrorism / National Security.
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