INDEPENDENT NEWS

Hamish Walker - A Personal Statement And An Apology

Published: Tue 7 Jul 2020 05:32 PM
I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source.
I did this to expose the Government’s shortcomings so they would be rectified. It was never intended that the personal details would be made public, and they have not been, either by me or the persons I forwarded them to.
I have received legal advice that I have not committed any criminal offence.
The information that I received was not password protected by the Government. It was not stored on a secure system where authorised people needed to log on. There was no redaction to protect patient details, and no confidentiality statement on the document.
By exposing a significant privacy issue I hope the Government will improve its protocols and get its safeguards right.
I made serious allegations against the Government’s Covid-19 response and passed on this information to prove those allegations.
Private health information does not have basic safeguards in place and the Government needs to immediately change its protocols and store the information on a secure, safe network that at a minimum requires a password.
I sincerely apologise for how I have handled this information and to the individuals impacted by this. I will be fully cooperating with the Michael Heron QC inquiry.

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