New legislation introduced into Parliament is aimed at strengthening the protection of information obtained through the SafeWA app and contact registers.
Premier, Mark McGowan said contact registers were mandated at the end of last year and were among the tools the State had in its fight against the spread of COVID-19.
“The information collected assists WA Health contact tracers to quickly help effectively contain any outbreak,” Mr McGowan said.
He said the proposed new law- Protection of Information (Entry Registration Information Relating to COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases) Bill 2021 – would introduce a comprehensive legislative framework that would strengthen the integrity of contact registers and provide a higher level of protection for the information collected.
He said the new legislation limited the use and disclosure of contact registration information to purposes relating to contact tracing, and set out storage and disposal requirements.
“Currently, authorities are able to access information collected through SafeWA as permitted by law,” Mr McGowan said.
“In line with their obligation to keep the community safe, the WA Police Force has accessed contact registration information on two occasions while investigating two serious crimes.”
He said the system had been introduced in the middle of the global pandemic and while access to its information was lawful, the Government’s intention was for contact registers to be used only for contact tracing purposes.
“This new legislation strengthens this commitment and guarantees individuals’ information collected through contact tracing tools will be used for one reason and one reason only — contact tracing,” the Premier said.
“Information collected through the SafeWA app has never been able to be used for commercial purposes,” Mr McGowan said.
“This will remain the case under the new legislation,” he said.
