ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has called for privacy to be at the forefront of the COVID-19 contact tracing app planned by the federal government.
Mr Barr told ABC Canberra he had asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to keep privacy advocates and technology experts involved in the development of the technology.
He asked the Prime Minister that the app design let people see where the information it gained would sit.
READ MORE:
- Claudia's critical role teaching staff on COVID-19 frontline
- ACT parents' heartbreak at son's restricted funeral
- ACT 'well placed' to push ahead with development during pandemic
- OPINION: Diary of an optimist: Beware of fast-movers while out running
- Sixth day in a row with no new ACT coronavirus cases
"It remains my view that those issues will need to be addressed to the comfort of the majority of Australians before they sign up. That is entirely appropriate," Mr Barr said.
He urged against the federal government developing the app in secret, only to spend weeks defending it after announcing the measure to prevent COVID-19 spreading.
"I understand the intent of what the application would seek to do, it would streamline processes and make tracing easier, but it would need to be designed with privacy at the forefront," he said.
The federal government will release the app in the next fortnight using data to detect people who have come in contact with others carrying coronavirus.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert overseeing the roll-out has promised to undertake a privacy assessment and publish the app's code to address fears about the program.
The federal government has said at least 40 per cent of the population needs to sign up to the technology to make it effective, and has described it as one of the measures that could help it ease coronavirus restrictions.
Mr Barr on Monday also said the Jobs for Canberrans program finding ACT public service jobs for people who have lost work amid COVID-19 restrictions would go for 14 months and cost $20 million over two fiscal years.
Hundreds of ACT public servants were being redeployed to areas of need in the territory bureaucracy in response to coronavirus, and as the pandemic slowed work in parts of government.
"We will have a constant process of assessing where we are in the pandemic, what sorts of new activities we might need to undertake, which areas are not having a large amount of work generated at this time," he said.
"It's going to change as we move through the different phases of the pandemic."
The ACT government will recruit more staff into health and customer facing roles that deliver services in areas seeing unprecedented demand, Mr Barr said.
- For information on COVID-19, please go to the ACT Health website or the federal Health Department's website.
- You can also call the Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080
- If you have serious symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, call Triple Zero (000)
Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. If you're looking to stay up to date on COVID-19, you can also sign up for our twice-daily digest here.
