Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 2 June 2017 | Page 11

GEIR O’ROURKE
ASIO should be given easier access
to doctors’ medical records to help
the agency identify potential terror-
ists, the coroner investigating the
Lindt cafe siege says.
The recommendations from
NSW State Coroner Michael Barnes
were handed down last week, in a
472-page report into the siege that
claimed the lives of the gunman
Man Haron Monis and two hos-
tages.
The report said Monis had no
diagnosable psychiatric disorder
that deprived him of the ability to
understand the nature of what he
was doing as he planned and exe-
cuted his 2014 attack.
But Mr Barnes called on the NSW
Government to rewrite state pri-
vacy legislation to make it easier for
ASIO to gain “appropriate access to
health-related information” about
suspected potential terrorists.
ASIO needs access to medical
records, says state coroner
Coroner Michael Barnes delivered his
report on the Lindt cafe siege.
Security services could be missing
crucial details about potential ter-
rorists because government agen-
cies and health organisations were
only able to pass on medical records
to ASIO when they feared an immi-
nent threat, Mr Barnes wrote.
“The current limitations on infor-
mation disclosure to ASIO con-
tained in NSW privacy legislation,
therefore, in certain circumstances,
do not cater well for current terror-
ism threats.”
The coroner also urged the Aus-
tralian Psychological Society (APS)
to amend its cod