E&OE…
Topics: My Health Record; Mark Latham
FRAN KELLY:
Greg Hunt is the federal Health Minister. He joins us from the Victorian seat of Flinders where he’s currently on a 500 kilometre trek in support of autism groups. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.
GREG HUNT:
Good morning Fran.
FRAN KELLY:
So you’ve come up with a number of measures to beef up the safety of My Health Record, can you now guarantee that all patients’ health information will be private and will never be misused?
GREG HUNT:
This is absolutely a private system and the proof is that after six years and six million enrolments there still hasn’t been a single case that’s been identified of abuse of My Health information.
So, it is a remarkably strong system by Australian and international standard and these changes are in response to a Senate review. Again, the Senate review, in fact there were two Senate reviews, failed to identify a single case of abuse or breach, but importantly we’re adding changes to Labor’s original legislation to provide additional safeguards including maximum criminal penalties increasing from two years to five years jail.
Maximum fines for individuals, increasing from $126,000 up to $315,000, and other additional protections as well as our commitment from July to ensure that police could never access the record, which was the existing policy in any event, without a court order and that once somebody moves to have a record deleted, it will be deleted forever.
FRAN KELLY:
Okay. Who will be- you’ve got these new fines now, who will be policing the scheme to make sure that private information is not being misused and that the data won’t be mined for commercial purposes or by government agencies, who’s in charge of that?
GREG HUNT:
So the Digital Health Agency oversees it because the Digital Health Agency is the only body that actually has access to the information and can monitor whether or not there’ve been any breaches of the system.
FRAN KELLY:
And will that be a constant process, the monitoring for breaches, will there be alarms, alerts, what- how will that be done?
GREG HUNT:
Yes, that already exists and that’s been in operation and there are already criminal penalties and already significant fines and both of those will be increased.
So the important thing is that this is a system which has served already six million Australians and it then moves to be a system where everybody will have access to their own medical records and the purpose of that of course is to not just ensure that each person has the right for the first time to their own medical history but that it avoids misuse of medicines, it means that in an emergency situation doctors and hospital workers will be able to treat a patient and ensure that they’re not subject to a treatment where they have an allergy or they have a reaction.
So it’s been the long sought goal of the health profession in Australia to ensure that in a time of crisis or in a time when people are not able to recall all of their details, that means they can get that emergency treatment, they can literally have lives saved and protected as the head of the AMA said publicly some months ago.
FRAN KELLY:
Yet some doctors have been concerned and a former head of the AMA Kerryn Phelps raised some of those concerns earlier about the privacy going to the Senate committee recommendations, another recommendation was to strengthen the existing ban on secondary access to the data for commercial purposes. Is there- I mean why not just impose a blanket ban on the commercial use of this data forever?
GREG HUNT:
Well there is.
FRAN KELLY:
So there will never be a third party access to a person’s My Health Record without that person’s explicit permission?
GREG HUNT:
There can’t be access for any commercial purposes. Only the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looks at it in terms of research and public health purposes but no commercial ovation, no access by insurers, no access by employers.
FRAN KELLY:
Let me get that clear. Research and public health purposes. So you’re saying the insurance industry can’t access it for research?
GREG HUNT:
Correct.
FRAN KELLY:
Okay. And what about government agencies?
GREG HUNT:
Correct.
FRAN KELLY:
So the ATO won’t be able to look at it?
GREG HUNT:
No, indeed. That has already been prohibited.
That was prohibited in the original legislation and what we have done is we also ensure that there will be no access by any legal authorities or the ATO or other bodies without a court order unless in that situation they were pursuing a criminal action and mostly that would be to protect the rights of the individuals against any breach. It has very very strong protections.
But the real point here is that the whole nature of this system is to actually save and protect lives and indeed, it’s just a fundamental part of modern medical architecture and infrastructure that.
FRAN KELLY:
Oh, I think everybody understands that…
GREG HUNT:
Australia should have had such a system more than a decade ago.
FRAN KELLY:
I think everyone understands that but it doesn’t mean, Minister, that it’s perfect and as you’re acknowledging here the Senate recommendations and the ones you’ve taken up and the changes you made means it wasn’t perfect. I mean why didn’t we get all this before the scheme was rolled out, before the start of the opt-out period?
GREG HUNT:
Well these of course the changes that have come about after six years and six years of a very very successful operation.
Most of these have only recently been raised as potential future issues. Again, no individual cases after six million people in six years, but significantly we’re very very happy to take on board proposals and suggestions to change Labor’s original legislation where (inaudible).
FRAN KELLY:
Well you haven’t been so happy, you’ve been pretty resistant originally. I mean you’re happy now but.
GREG HUNT:
Well not really, no, that’s.
FRAN KELLY:
Your initial reaction was not- you argued.
GREG HUNT:
No. Again, most of these issues were not raised and then in the last two weeks of the Braddon, Longman by-election as we moved to the opt-out period, after Labor only a month before had welcomed it and raised none of those issues, they then brought something up in the (inaudible) of the by-elections. We actually responded within a week and a half.
FRAN KELLY:
Okay, Minister.
GREG HUNT:
And then issued the call for a Senate inquiry. I remember ensuring that there was going to be a Senate inquiry myself by working with the senators and requesting that that be the case and then we also (inaudible) the legislation went through the lower house that we would consider with an open mind any suggestions that the Senate came up with.
So, we’ve actually worked to continually improve the protections and to strengthen the protections, but above all else, to get this very very important medical set of records to each individual so as for the first time they own their own medical record.
FRAN KELLY:
I think it’s important just before we leave this issue and we do have one or two things to get through if we can.
The notion of the privacy of people who are trying to avoid a domestic violent perpetrator. You made some changes to this. Will the changes mean it will be impossible for any person, any parent subject to a domestic violence or restraining order to access the information?
GREG HUNT:
Correct. What happened here is that the provisions will ensure that a person cannot be – the authorised representative, which means they cannot have access to a record of a minor if they have what’s called restricted access to the child or pose a risk to the child or a person associated with the child.
So that’s a very clear legal test. I think that was a very useful and important next step. Again, after six years no cases have been presented but this is about an additional protection which has come through the Senate inquiry and I think it’s a valuable and important step and a change to the original Labor legislation from 2011 and 2012.
FRAN KELLY:
Minister, another issue. The former opposition leader Mark Latham has confirmed that he’s joining One Nation. He’s going to be the party’s leader in New South Wales. That could mean more votes do you think for Pauline Hanson and One Nation?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I have no idea how people will respond. I’ll let the Labor Party people who voted for him explain why they elected him leader.
But my view’s very clear, in New South Wales the right party is the Liberal Party and the National Party in coalition because the last- the only other alternative government there is Labor and the last time they were in power they were flat out corrupt.
FRAN KELLY:
Alright. Greg Hunt, thank you very much for joining us.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks very much.
FRAN KELLY:
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt is joining us there from his seat of Flinders where he’s currently on a 500 kilometre trek around his electorate. It’s in support of causes- groups around autism, research groups and support groups around autism. But if you want to have a word with the Health Minister, that’s where to find him. He’s walking around his electorate and he’s happy, I think, to have you walk alongside him.