Vic:Bracks admits files fiasco was 'major error' but defends OPI

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2005
Vic:Bracks admits files fiasco was 'major error' but defends OPI

MELBOURNE, Aug 9 AAP - Victorian Premier Steve Bracks today defended the Office of
Police Integrity (OPI) after it inadvertently sent hundreds of sensitive police files
to a private citizen.

Mr Bracks described the gaffe as a "major error" but said the state ombudsman George
Brouwer, who also heads the OPI, had handled it appropriately.

"People should have confidence in the office," Mr Bracks told Southern Cross radio.

"On occasion if there is an error the first thing is you face up to it.

"You say 'that was an error', that you apologise for it and you take action to find
out why it occurred and ... accept what the remedies are."

Confidential files on more than 400 people were sent by the OPI to a woman in country
Victoria in May after she complained that a policewoman had breached her privacy by accessing
her files.

Mr Brouwer has blamed the blunder on a mail clerk and initially said the watchdog could
investigate the matter itself.

But he bowed yesterday to mounting pressure and called in the privacy commissioner
Paul Chadwick to examine the circumstances surrounding the error.

Mr Bracks backed Mr Brouwer's explanation in a statement yesterday as a "clerical error".

"It's commensurate with the problem involved, that is that an error was made in the
dispatching area where private and confidential material was sent."

The premier rejected long-running calls from the opposition to replace the OPI with
a royal commission as he and his police minister Tim Holding came under fire in parliament
today.

Outside parliament, Mr Doyle said the privacy commissioner lacked the resources to
deal with all aspects of the bungle.

Instead, a retired judge with sufficient powers should be appointed to investigate the affair.

"As it stands we have got a real crisis of confidence in the watchdog that this government
set up," Mr Doyle told reporters.

"The government seems intent, instead of facing this and fixing it, in sweeping it
under the carpet."

Mr Doyle said the OPI should be abolished and a royal commission set up "to clear the
decks" over Victoria's gangland killings and police corruption.

Earlier Police Minister Tim Holding told ABC Radio the OPI's bungle was "inexcusable".

Nonetheless, he defended Mr Brouwer's handling of the issue, saying he had apologised
and "hasn't tried to cover it up in any way".

Mr Holding said the privacy commissioner would "test" the ombudsman's explanation of
the mistake and investigate what could be done to improve the security of confidential
information held at the OPI.

AAP nl/mh/jt/tnf

KEYWORD: FILES NIGHTLEAD

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