Glenn Marshall accepted Whaikaha's apology over a privacy breach but now he has concerns after documents show IHC later asked questions about seven of the nine people whose details it inadvertently received. Photo / Warren Buckland
Glenn Marshall accepted Whaikaha's apology over a privacy breach but now he has concerns after documents show IHC later asked questions about seven of the nine people whose details it inadvertently received. Photo / Warren Buckland
A Government ministry breached the privacy of nine people by mistakenly sending their names and email addresses to the very organisation the group was complaining about.
Now one of those whose details were disclosed has made a formal complaint to Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People, after six of the names turned up in an Official Information Act [OIA] request from IHC for details of complaints against it.
Disability advocate Glenn Marshall has also complained to Disabilities Minister Penny Simmonds, asking her to investigate IHC and its subsidiary Idea Services.
On October 13 last year, Whaikaha mistakenly sent IHC an email within an OIA response about a meeting with whānau who had raised concerns about Idea Services’ “bath ban”.
The email contained the names and email addresses of nine complainants and was a breach of their privacy which Whaikaha later apologised for.
In an apology to Marshall dated November 30 last year, Whaikaha deputy chief executive Amanda Bleckmann wrote that whānau had raised their concerns with the expectation their identities would be kept private.
“Parents and whānau are genuinely concerned about how they will be treated by IHC should their identities become known,” Bleckmann wrote.
“Whaikaha have asked me to reassure you that any issues which arise from the disclosure of your email will be addressed with their support.”
Bleckmann said IHC provided assurances it had instructed staff who received the email to delete all copies, and not to use the information in any way or pass it on to anyone.
However, documents recently released to Marshall show IHC, through a lawyer at Duncan Cotterill, made an OIA request to the ministry on December 9 last year with the names of 10 people and asking whether any had complained about IHC/Idea.
Amanda Bleckmann, deputy chief executive for commissioning, design and delivery at Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People.
Whaikaha responded on March 8, refusing to identify who made complaints to it, but Marshall has discovered that of the nine names released in the privacy blunder, seven including his were on the list of 10 names asked about by IHC.
Marshall said he was worried about the potential for repercussions against the complainants, who were the family of intellectually disabled Idea Services residents.
IHC group chief executive Ralph Jones previously threatened a complainant with defamation when the man led a 29-page submission to the Ministry of Health criticising the direction of IHC during the past 20 years.
Jones rejects that IHC tried to establish who made complaints about Idea Services.
“Whaikaha has acknowledged that we agreed to delete all copies of the email that was sent to us in error, which we did immediately,” Jones said.
“Any allegations of IHC using the names released to us in error are false.
“In no instance have we used the privacy breach to find out who was making complaints about Idea Services.”
A recent review of IDEA Services’ complaints process by barrister Rachael Schmidt-McCleave found there had been correspondence from IHC/Idea with some review participants that was “not respectful and can be interpreted as retaliatory or condemnatory”.
“Any retaliatory or condemnatory behaviour whatsoever at any level must not be tolerated from here on in and that message ought to be conveyed from the board itself.”
After the review findings were made public IHC published a letter on its website from former board member Shelley Payne defending Idea Services and criticising Whaikaha and the participants of the review as “serial complainants”, despite their identities being anonymous and despite not being a board member since 2018.
Jones said: “The right to complain and have any concerns investigated and resolved is an important part of the relationship that Idea Services has with the people it supports and their families.
“We accept all of the recommendations of the review and we are working together with Whaikaha to achieve the agreed outcomes.”
Bleckmann said the “set of names and email addresses released in error were not the same set of names which were the subject of the OIA request from IHC’s lawyer in December 2022″.
“We have apologised to the families. We sought and obtained assurances from IHC that the email addresses had not been retained and they would not act on that information.”
She said the ministry would be “concerned” if the names had been passed on by IHC.
Bleckmann said Whaikaha did not notify the Privacy Commissioner and did not believe it was obligated to.
Instead, the ministry provided the families with details on how to complain to the Privacy Commissioner.
Simmonds responded to Marshall, noting he planned to complain to the Privacy Commissioner, and said she had asked Whaikaha for details of the matter.
Natalie Akoorie is the Open Justice deputy editor, based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 28 years, recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.
