Census Damned If You Do & Fined if You Do Not.
This is a submission I did against changes that the Liberal Govt wanted to push through just prior to Covid19. It now has relevance for all Australians. Census has included the changes requiring former Australian Defence Force personnel to identify themselves.
5th January, 2020
To the Reviewing Committee,
Re:
Proposed Amendments Details of
the Census and Statistics Amendment
(Statistical Information) Regulations 2019
Thank you for the opportunity to make a
submission.
I wish my submission to be public, but
to have only my address/email withheld for security reasons.
I believe I have both the personal and
qualified experience to make my submission worthy of inclusion as I: -
(a)
served in the Australian Defence Force;
(b)
am a wheely for life above knee amputee and was also
carer of a frail aged prior;
(c)
have experience of computers (old programming) for networked/large
entities in the workplace as snr bookkeeper for over 10years requiring advanced
exposure to program security. Hold a Dip Acc 2017 which covered the modules FNSACC505
Establish & Maintain Accounting Info System or AIS and FNSACC506 re
Implement & maintain internal control procedures that have timely relevance
considering the 2016 development of the Census.
My
submission is longer than the usual 5 pages, but addresses Privacy &
Security of Census gathering: - Centralised Data; Defence; & Medical.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Tracey Hoolachan
1
Privacy & Security of Centralised Data
Does
Australian Parliament House have the privacy & security protections in
place to secure Defence & Medical data in a single place? No!
1.1
The last Census has proven this is doomed to fail. The last Census disaster
showed the centralisation of data made the information a bigger target. With all of its tech savviness USA has not
prevented its own major private companies from having & allowing data
breaches e.g. Facebook, Capital One & Amazon8. It is not if, but when information uploaded
will be breached. Whatever money is
spent on security, it will never be enough.
This is 2020 after 40 years of home computer programming, we’re at Enigma
Code meets Generation Turing. When the security puzzle is cracked, do we really
want the winner to be able to take all in a smash & grab? ;
1.2 How did Census 2016 go so badly wrong?
We’re advised it was IBM Australia’s use of sub-contractors. (They quickly
disputed this)1. A hugely publicised & incredibly fast payout by
IBM of $30Million was made. (Where did those naughty sub-contractors disappear
to?). No wonder media was almost asleep by comparison, when a $1Billion 5-year
maintenance of multi government department computers was awarded to a company
that couldn’t manage effectively the security in one department without
outsourcing. IBM boasted “under the
agreement, all government agencies can access the financial benefits and
technologies”.2 This amplifies my security or privacy fears;
1.3 Currently we’re told that Census
only captures numerical data. Let’s look
at that old form3. The form has been set up with fields &
instructs completion methods to make optical character recognition an easier
process. The household individually numbered forms with the names enables an
easier alpha-numeric saving ergo reducing fuzzy logic. Did Government have the
ability to store all information? Absolutely! Form fillers find that out when
they get to Part 60. When there, they are generously given the opportunity to
be part of history & voluntarily sign away their privacy rights. Only the
limited details of public release timeframes are given. Not how government &
private entity will use data in the interim. At least data-miners give a free
voucher for surveys & don’t legislate you must complete them. Box 60 is the
box immediately before the signature box. This is so the form is completed
before you’re aware of Government’s ability to save all. That single line correction method on the
front page enables the program to see your first answer & a simple code
will enable it to record changes;
1.4
The ability to data match across Government agencies was enabled by the Data
Match Act 1990. Data matching is a key
control for the purpose of fraud control & non-compliance6. It
is recorded in Government committee minutes as early as 2009-105. The current Commonwealth Ombudsman
Michael Manthorpe should be well aware of this. He was on DEEWR Committee that
discussed this. It has been used for Robodebt & I’m asked to credit, that a
Government that sat on a conflict of interest between that office & the
Robodebt review processes would miss a golden opportunity to have recorded Census
data for future data matching. It’s an
insult to my Robo-nous. An increasing number of departments are being merged
& privatised. Every time that happens more of our data is captured &
available to subcontractors & temporary contract workers thereto. Trust
Government with more defence & medical data? I don’t know:- who the hell
Government is now; who they are being led by; & whether that situation will
be the same next week;
1.5
Within Microsoft Word we have the ability to find a word & replace that
same word throughout an entire document.
Though not a feature of Word, there is an ability to merge documents20.
That enables correction or change of data across multiple documents at high
speed. Excel workbooks again correction across multiple worksheets. With
today’s graphic packages areas can be changed & replaced very quickly &
standard forms make that process easier to do on a mass scale. It doesn’t take
much imagination to picture how quick data can be changed across multiple
Census forms whether forms are completed online or data extracted by optical
character recognition;
1.6 We must consider it a very real probability Census data
is being saved in full & used for data-matching to build up a body of
evidence & profile what Government now calls cohorts (formerly known as the
public, civilians, citizens & customers). Knowing that the capability
is there, the questions to consider are: - who has potential access to all the
Census data?; and how secure is the data of those completing Census?;
1.7
Immediately, the Public Service come to mind as the human face. At this time after
Robodebt I’ve no hesitation in saying they can’t be trusted. I’m not satisfied my
Robodebt No.1 wasn’t maliciously given (won full waive AAT) & I watched
& recorded my Robodebt No.2 being created.
The Robodebt arose due to their own failed timely processing of a correct
notification I gave. I also lodged a
complaint of their non-timely processing & still I got a Robodebt. False information was placed on my file
noting it was my fault. This is already
a subject in a submission to Senate, but what should be of concern for Census
is I firmly believe Robodebt No.2 was done to manipulate the program’s success
rate enabling continuance of what now is seen to have been unlawful process
from the start. My concerns on this has been amplified by a televised video of
a Robodebt performance motivation whiteboard22.;
1.7
When a privatised section of Public Service, the Debt Team, was financially
motivated to create & completely misrepresent data for a financial per
scalp gain, it’s not hard to imagine that being replicated in a privatised
Census environment where a per form processed contract exists. Let’s not fool
ourselves. That’s where Census will go under an LNP Government. In light of
interdepartmental resource sharing, I’d be highly surprised if it’s not already
happened. Statistics I’ve checked recently from ABS have moved strongly away
from expanding on long tested & proven data report formats. The result it corrupts
historical data flows & we should all be asking why did it happen?;
1.7 Can Australians rely on the Australian Public
Service hierarchy to protect their security & privacy interests? No!
We’re watching Robodebt unfold as an unlawful administrative disaster.
As a publicly outspoken victim of Robodebt from the start who fought it to
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (won waive), I spoke out knowing OAIC gave
Centrelink permission to breach vocal advocates privacy for defending their
selves against Government’s unlawfulness. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to date to
get my own privacy breaches & I allege other unlawful Robodebt actions
addressed. I am dismayed that I can personally add to Robodebt unlawfulness
being avoided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office in addition to not one but
two announced reviews. Knowing that Census has the ability to be stored,
changed, altered & deleted & Public Service hierarchy will do
absolutely nothing, but cover that up gives me absolutely no faith in ABS data
from 2016 or any data anymore.
Privacy
& Security of Defence Personnel
Will
more information on Census forms be a greater defence risk? Yes!
1.1
It is usually via a backdoor information that hackers
gain access and Census would be seen as an easier target for hackers than
Defence. Putting Defence information on forms that include their family or
friends’ names, birthdays details etc is instantly giving hackers & privacy
breachers not just possible hints to personal passwords, but information that
can be used in psychological warfare against Defence personnel;
1.2
It has never been a good military tactic to secure
anything in one central location that allows attacks from all sides. In WWII
when Churchill thought England was lost, he did not move Dad’s Army down to
London to defend the motherland. He
spread the information out all across the country for a fight back. We’ve lost
already the technology war. Our data has already been mined by privately owned
foreign companies via Social Media. What
are the two things still secreted by the majority in social media? Defence service
& medical information. What is the most valuable data-mined information on
the black-market? Defence service & medical information;
1.3
With IBM likely to be doing the maintenance on
computers storing data from documents it’s partnerships and relationships with
other companies should be considered. They’ll no doubt subcontract out &
align their processes to other partners interests for profit. Examples of
alliances document management to partners 100% Japan foreign company Fuji Xerox7who
were allowed to pick our 2016 election winner by capturing the vibe of voters. When
Fuji Xerox’s vibe is used in preference to my vote, I’m not a solicitor but I
question how any Members of House of Representatives etc can lay claim to have
been constitutionally “directly” elected 2016 or any subsequent elections like,
shall we generously say “process” occurred. This is a foreign company &
without prejudice a country that historically showed a hostile design on
Australia by bombing us WWII. Who won, because their say is worth more than our
votes now? We need a big look at what’s already out there, before rushing to
give more information quickly into foreign hands by computer. With budget restrictions old defence personnel
records are unlikely to have been uploaded. Manual typewriters ruled the 80’s.
A retired computer anonymous military Home Defence force made up of still
capable 40-60y.o.’s is not a bad thing to keep offline in a changing world;
1.4
Make no mistake from what I’ve seen recently coming out
of Government you already have a lot of security problems that have been
ignored for a very long time. That means your security is so compromised you
have a serious threat from the inside. Government’s shown a blatant intent,
every opportunity to irresponsibly expose the identity of defence personnel
past & present. In one breath we are
told there is a terrorism threat and “cyber security is one of the Australian
Government's highest national security priorities”. In another breath, acts like this
Census change. We’re giving those cyber
terrorists even more candy. As a former
defence personnel member, I’ve watched Government of late offering badges to
wear to get free drinks on planes. “Thank you for pointing them out”, says Mr
Hi-jacker. The discount loyalty card that in an age of computerised cash
registers with item entry buttons for that defence discount code data captures
that discount for debit/credit card purchases.
When Investopedia only tells you the 5 biggest credit card hacks, it’s a
big hint there’s an awful lot11.
1.5
As we enter an aged population there will be a lot of
people succumb to aged related illnesses. Whether a reservist or full-time
defence personnel member all were trained in the same barracks &
bases. When considering exposure to fire
fighting chemicals etc I can only see a negative effect of higher personal
insurance premiums or denial of claims to former military personnel based on
military service data results.
3. Privacy
& Purpose of Medical Information
3.1 Even without fires, the Christmas timing of these
proposed changes, when health workers have statutory holidays shows an intent
to stifle fair response;
3.2 Joe Citizen is having major problems with trusting
their data privacy and the computer savvy of Federal Government and rightly due
to: -
3.2(a) 2015 Metadata22
& Anti-encryption laws 201821;
3.2(a) the 2016 Census fiasco;
3.2(b) My Health Wrecks a computer
opt-out process;
3.2(c) Robodebt attacking and probably unlawfully, more
than the Senate advised 300 ‘vulnerable’ test citizens if the 2030 figure of
deaths within a year of Robodebt receipt are correct (the algorithm certainly
isn’t);
3.3 Over 2.5 million people opted out of My Health
Record because they didn’t trust Federal Government & stunts like this timed
response to Census changes shows why9. Why should citizens trust
Federal Government respects their health privacy when: -
3.3(a) My Health Record previously termed E-Health was
promoted by Hon. Ley as for release to many incl. Gymnasium Instructors10.
My Health Record was never about
protecting our health security rather selling the data to the highest bidders
& now that has been prevented this Census move is not a good look;
3.3(b) Government has handed numerous health contracts
incl. defence & NDIS to Serco who co-own Viapath13 genome
sequencers. Serco has a sordid history of overcharging UK’s National Health
Service15. December again more
charges to defend for yet again accounting issues to now the Dept of Justice
(charging for deceased prisoners) 14. Despite systemic accounting problems through
Serco Group of companies, this appears to be no barrier for our Government who
have been handing them government contracts on our health like confetti. So
enamoured are they Mr Birch former boss of My Health Record’s obvious conflict
of interest with Serco (co-consulting simultaneously) was not a problem16;
3.3(c) they are threatening Social Security recipients
with blood testing because they are so desperate to get more of our health
data;
3.4 Yes, but once we get passed: -
3.4(a) the unhealthy appeal Government seems to have in
signing contracts without qualifying contractors e.g. Paladin head office
Kangaroo Island beach shack17
3.4(b) the Government’s willingness to sign health
contracts with companies with skills so poor they possibly can’t even identify
a dead body e.g. Serco as per s3.3;
3.4(c) considering sister co’s & partnerships
conflict of interests e.g. IBM s1.2; and
3.4(d) allowing the use of unscreened subcontractors
e.g. again IBM s1.2;
what’s left?
Well actually the real Public Service have a pretty poor historical
record on privacy breaches themselves. Over
100 were caught in one sweep at Centrelink alone18. Additionally, anyone reading the excellent
audit reports coming out of ANAO will be aware they’ve been raising poor
privilege user access controls amongst other cyber risks across multiple
departments for years19;
3.5 No self-respecting budget committee would model an
aging population future based on Census collected 5 years apart. An ageing
population means every year that health budget should be increasing by not just
the CPI, but also to allow for increases in aged condition medical uptakes. A
Census that could be 5 years behind the times just won’t cut it. Already reports from the Royal Commissions on
the Aged and submissions to Disability on NDIS are showing an appalling delivery
of health care under the current Government. Make no mistake when people have
had their deaths hastened by non-provision of essential equipment via NDIS
& from lack of aged care home packages the criminal negligence that has
gone on is not going to be swept under a carpet. If the current fires have
shown anything Joe Public has just about it & Government needs to lift its
game fast & show its actions have the best interest of voters at heart.
Using yet another stall of waiting for Census figure analysis is just not good
enough. Times well & truly up;
3.6 Census forms are completed by individuals &
more than probably they are not their own medical assessors. Any data therefrom
is totally worthless for accurate statistics so the question then becomes why
are the medical questions being asked in the first place? We have annual budgets & a facility for
further appropriations for when ambitious optimistic Governments screw up. Appropriations
not demanded by Public Servants to the extent people are being dying is both
inexcusable and unquestionably negligent.
A politician giving a directive that in anyway discourages Public
Service requests for additional appropriations to the detriment of citizens
health is not showing good order & therefore I struggle to see they would
be empowered by the Constitution s50 to give such an instruction. Consolidated
Revenue has directly received an additional 7.5% income tax since 1950 when
Menzies shifted the money from the National Revenue Fund. (Collected since
1943-6 until 1950 to a separate fund that showed it made a healthy
surplus). Using the pathetic excuse, the
Trust Fund doesn’t exist when the income tax bracket adjustment that raised the
funds was never readjusted back, doesn’t wash. Health & Welfare has been
overpaid for with the 7.5% Income Tax adjustment and a whole range of levies
Medicare, smokers, alcopops on top. Start paying now & don’t even think of
trying to stall with Census as an excuse.
3.5 These questions are on a form I have a statutory
obligation to complete. This is an
incredible breach of my medical privacy and make no mistake I consider it to be
disability discrimination. The Act is
very clear answers given by someone healthy and someone with a medical
condition are going to be “materially different”. The same clause Disability Discrimination Act
1992 30(2)(b) is assaulted time and again by LNP. From proposed Drug Tests, opt-out
Cashless Debit Cards the LNP Government has slated multiple processes that
offends every aspect this clause. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 was
formed in the shadow of international Human Rights.
3.
6 We’re told these Census additions are for our
health benefit. LNP Government has an appalling history on health. Consider
NDIS. It repurposed $3.9Billion off the care assessed Plan needs of disabled
NDIS participants including myself. We weren’t dying fast enough so it cut a
further $1.6Billion in the Budget a few months later. All across the country horror stories of
LNP’s NDIS neglect eg a child in a wheelbarrow 5km from where I use to live. Me
over quarter of a million worth of Plans that I may as well have wiped my
proverbial *rse on. 20hours cleaning in over 2 years will be raised with LNP named
as my abusers in my Royal Commission submission. I have video taken by my solicitor’s physio
and hospital reports subsequent to the ambulance he phoned for me attesting I’ve
been physically impaired by the neglect I’ve had due to LNP’s games with my
NDIS care Plan funds. I do not believe for one single minute LNP can be
believed on anything related to health. It’s solution to the screams for care
from disabled $800,000 extra money to propaganda consultants and a virtual
reality computer so no-one has to listen. Let me be very clear I have no hesitation in
going on the Royal Commission & other records to say it is my personal
opinion that the LNP Government has pro-actively conspired to deny both health
care and justice for its non-provision.
3.7 Before LNP is given access to any more health information
the nature of its relationship with Serco & other contractors should be
further investigated. The number of
medical contracts that have gone to Serco that for all intents & purposes
is a foreign private company has virtually given that company a data monopoly
of Australian health. LNP further
concealed information from the Australian people until media outed facts that
Serco: -
3.7(a) was also getting consultant advice from Mr
Health Record boss Birch (resigned after media outed him);
3.7(b) was caught out overcharging UK’s National
Health Service;
3.7(c) is co-owner of a genome sequencers Viapath
which makes any involvement in health data, a conflict of data-mining
interests.
In Conclusion
While
acknowledging the need to gather statistics we should be reminded from a
medical point of view it has information from qualified sources and from
Government applications in place now. An example of this the waiting list
raised at the Royal Commission for home care packages showing those people that
didn’t die first wait an average of two years. This data extracted from
applications completed by the target market accompanied by medical professional
data. Suggesting up to the minute
application process statistics are replaced by 5-year statistics from non-medical
professional data that is possibly inflated when you consider the hypochondriac
factor is laudable. Only Governments hiding
their total incompetence & negligence would use those statistics.
As
Australians we need to sharply wake up that this world is changing and our
alliances are going to change as that occurs. Whist we can not stop contracts
signed giving access to information we can limit what information is their that
can be damaging to Home Security. Government already has defence records of
personnel past and present. Enabling
that data to be accessed by foreign company subcontractors is just plain stupid
and dangerous.
Schedule 1 – Amendments
Items 1 and 2 insert two new topics into
the list of topics in relation to which the Statistician proposes to collect statistical
information.
Item 1 requires the Statistician to
collect information about service in the Australian Defence Force from persons
15 years and older. Collection
of this topic on the Census will allow for a better understanding of the
circumstances of Australia’s veteran community, and will facilitate targeted
services and support related to this community’s health, economic and social
wellbeing.
Item 2 inserts a topic relating to
health conditions diagnosed by a doctor or a nurse. This topic will be answered
by all respondents and assist health service planning and service delivery at
the local level.
Item 3 repeals
the topic related to access to the internet at the dwelling from the list of
topics. The growth in
internet access outside of the home on mobile and other personal devices has
rendered the current topic collecting household internet access as less
relevant.
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