Mr McLACHLAN (Minister for Defence)(11.41 a.m.) —by leave—On 3 September 1997 I gave an undertaking to the House that I would inquire further into the matter of the release to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory of the ranks of the Defence Force members living in the Larrakeyah Military Barracks. The Vice-Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral Barrie, has completed his investigations and has provided me with the following information.

The ranks of individual Defence Force members are not compiled in any publication generally available to the public but they do appear from time to time in documentation printed by Defence and made available to the public, such as the Defence functional telephone directory, which members of the public can purchase. Legal advice from the Attorney-General's Department is that the matching of members' names and addresses as they appeared on the electoral roll with the member's rank and the disclosure of the information to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was technically in breach of the Privacy Act. The Attorney-General's Department added that the disclosure in this situation is of a relatively minor nature and unlikely to cause significant interference with the privacy of an individual.

I might add that this was not a breach of the Defence Act as suggested by the shadow minister for defence. The issue in question is simply not covered by the Defence Act. Defence instructions are being amended to ensure that no breach of the Privacy Act occurs in future by this means. Members would realise that a military person's rank is hardly secret. Indeed, it is displayed with pride on the uniforms of everyone in the ADF.

I also note that the Privacy Act does not prevent the release of information on members' ranks for inclusion on honour rolls and the like where an ADF member may reasonably be expected to have known that information on his or her rank would be used in such a way.

On 2 September I told the House that I had been advised that there was no recollection or record of advice from Headquarters Northern Command given to the office of the leader of the Northern Territory opposition stating that rank information could not be made available. I also told the House on 3 September that I was not satisfied with the accuracy of this initial advice and that was what led me to ask Admiral Barrie to undertake this investigation. It now appears that such advice was indeed given to the office of the leader of the Northern Territory opposition by a newly appointed civilian staff member of Northern Command. Admiral Barrie reports that this person did not know that the commander had available in his office a copy of a previously compiled list if it was requested by political parties. Despite extensive questioning the commander was not able to establish this fact until after the matter was raised in the House. Admiral Barrie's judgment is that this arose because of a lack of understanding rather than any deliberate attempt to mislead.

I have already passed a copy of Admiral Barrie's report to the honourable member for Brisbane (Mr Bevis). Some of the material in the report is of a staff-in-confidence nature and I would ask the honourable member to handle the material accordingly.