McClelland under fire over arson database

James Riley
Tuesday, 01 November 2011 20:09

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

A national database of suspected arsonists launched this week by Attorney-General Robert McClelland was heavy-handed and had been created without the most basic consultation with civil liberties groups, the nation's peak privacy lobby claims.

Australian Privacy Foundation chair Roger Clarke says the creation the so-called National Arson Notification Capability - a national law enforcement database that enables 'warning flags' to be attached to the records of any Australian suspected of arson - and its announcement as an already-operational system was typical of the poor consultation practices at the Attorney-General's department.

Mr McClelland unveiled the arson database on Monday, saying it would enable state, territory and federal law enforcement to add warning flags to records held in its National Police Reference System. The database is managed by the AG department's secretive CrimTrac agency.

It is not clear how the database will operate, how a citizen would qualify to have warning flags put on their records, who will have access to the database, or how citizens can get access to information held against their names.

The arson database was first mooted by Mr McClelland following the shocking 2009 fires in Victoria. He established a National Bushfire Arson Forum - made up of police, fire and rescue representatives - which recommended in May last year that the database be established.

Mr McClelland said the 2011-12 bushfire season was expected to be the worst in 40 years, and said that "up to half" of 54,000 bushfires in Australia each year were either deliberately lit or started in suspicious circumstances.

He said the new database was based on National Police Reference System, which connects data from state and territory police systems. The arson database will be accessible by more than 55,000 state and territory law enforcement officers, as well as intelligence agencies. It is not clear whether fire department and state rescue services will also be allowed access to information contained in the database.

The privacy foundation's Mr Clarke says arson resulting in bushfires and grass fires was rightly considered a serious problem in broader society and said new approaches do appear to be needed. But he deplored the heavy-handed lack of communication of the Attorney-General's response.

"There's a popular conception that arson is a highly recidivist crime as indicated by the term 'fire bug'," Mr Clarke said. "If evidence supports that impression, then a case may well be able to be made to assist emergency services to identify people with previous convictions."

"But that doesn't mean that there's automatic justification for anything that law enforcement agencies dream up," he said.

Mr Clarke says the arson database initiative was a recommendation of the National Bushfire Arson Forum - itself made up of police officers, fire agency officers and arson specialists. No civil liberties organnisations were invited to look at the issue, or included in any kind of consultation.

The Australian Privacy Foundation joined six other civil liberties lobby groups - including New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia - in writing to Mr McClelland complaining that his department lacked formal consultative processes.

"We are very concerned that your Department appears to have no process in place to ensure consultation with civil society organisations about many of the initiatives that arise in your portfolio," the letter said.

"This lack of consultation results in many initiatives failing to reflect the concerns of civil society, and forces our organisations to undertake very rapid analysis and make rushed submissions to Parliamentary Committees."

In his reply - a copy of which has been posted to the APF website - Mr McClelland rejects the criticism.

"I believe that consultation with the public is an essential element in the development of robust policy initiatives," he said in response. "My Department and I take consultation seriously and we have undertaken considerable work to ensure processes are in place to engage with relevant organisations."