Classes On How To Keep Secrets

Newcastle Herald

Monday August 13, 2007

By PAUL MAGUIRE

CESSNOCK City Council is about to receive inside information on how best to keep a secret.

Deputy mayor Bob Pynsent will be the council's delegate at a seminar in Sydney on September 20 called Councils as Information Guardians Keeping Sensitive Information Confidential.

Spokesmen for Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Maitland councils told The Herald they had no problems concealing confidential matters and would not send staff to the seminar.

The seminar, organised by the Local Government and Shires Association, will be presented by representatives of the Sydney legal firm David Baird Maddocks.

The seminar program says the handling of sensitive information has always been an issue for councils, more so than other tiers of government, as councils were subjected to a complicated range of disclosure requirements and pressures that made it difficult to identify and protect sensitive information.

The potential for "leaks", and associated "damage", had risen with change in information systems, the program says.

Subjects on the day's agenda include identifying commercially sensitive and personal information to be considered in closed meetings, managing risk and "legal remedies".

Other lecture topics include who can leak information, why leaking occurs and damage that can result from unauthorised releases or the misuse of information, such as an increased possibility of corrupt or illegal practices.

Cr Pynsent said there was no specific matter that prompted him to attend the seminar, it was simply "a knowledge update".

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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