The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) has launched an investigation into allegations of improper surveillance by VicForests in and around 2011.
The allegations were first aired by the ABC in November last year and alleged that the State-owned logging business hired a private investigator to spy on an environmental activist.
In a statement following the ABC story, VicForrests said it had commissioned an external investigation into the claims.
Updating its statement last month (April), VicForrests announced it had referred the issue to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).
Earlier this month, IBAC referred the matter on to OVIC.
Announcing the OVIC investigation, Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said he would examine whether VicForests contravened the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act).
Mr Bluemmel said that along with the historical allegations, his investigation would also examine Vicforests’ current practices and procedures for conducting surveillance to assess their consistency with the PDP Act.
He said the investigation was “likely to have important lessons for other Victorian public sector Agencies on the lawful use of surveillance”.
“Any form of surveillance by Government Agencies is inherently intrusive and may be unlawful,” Mr Bluemmel said.
“It should never be conducted lightly and must always be subject to effective oversight,” he said.
“This investigation will determine whether VicForests carried out surveillance in breach of the Information Privacy Principles,” the Commissioner said.
