However if even Julian Burnside, perhaps the preeminent refugee advocate and human rights lawyer in oz is saying that folks like doctors are covered by section 48...
perhaps there is something there?
It's just too much to bear - Julian Burnside himself belling the cat. From his very own website:
The restriction in section 42 is modified by a
series of exceptions in sections 43 to 49. Most of those exceptions are not presently relevant. However the exceptions include these:
- disclosure to an authorised person for a purpose relating to the protection of public health, or the prevention or elimination of risks to the life or safety of an individual or a group of individuals; (s. 44 & s. 45 in conjunction with s. 46(d))
- disclosure to an authorised person for the provision of services to persons who are not Australian citizens; (s. 44 & s. 45 in conjunction with s. 46(j))
- section 48 has arguably the most important exception:
“48 Disclosure to reduce threat to life or health
An entrusted person may disclose protected information if:
(a) the entrusted person reasonably believes that the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to the life or health of an individual; and
(b) the disclosure is for the purposes of preventing or lessening that threat.”
[In my (Burnside's)nopinion, if a health worker learned facts while employed by a service provider in detention and genuinely believed, on reasonable grounds, that those facts represented a serious threat to the life or health of one or more asylum seekers, and, that disclosing those facts might help prevent or lessen that threat, the disclosure would not constitute an offence.
Similarly, if any other employee of a detention centre operator formed the same belief, and disclosed the facts believing that disclosing them might help prevent or lessen that threat, the disclosure would not constitute an offence.
Dear oh dear - here is Julian Burnside, no less, belling the cat. CM86 must be going off his head with the horrors. My feelings go out to him.
So how are we then to assist BF posters like CM86, who have been thrashing about and frothing at mouth here in the belief that honest and true health workers are going to be imprisoned by the evil Abbott govt for having exposed heinous sexual abuse practices on Manus Island and Nauru -
now that Burnside SC has advised to the contrary.?
Perhaps Chief could arrange for secure donations from BF afficionado/as to pay for counselling - kicking off with substantial donation from Chief himself - for, if needed, serious psychotherapy to those afflicted? Big Footy clearly has a duty of care towards those who have been gulled into believing anything the Guardian/Fairfax Media/ABC publishes about detention centres, national security, global warming, Tony Abbott or Joe Hockey. And no doubt other issues as well.
Surely we don't want to see ordinary run of mill posters like CM86 being carted off to funny farm just because they have been gulled by BS?
Surely Big Footy is bigger than this?