Contingency plans for emergency or security issues
Security infrastructure
Ministerial and Parliamentary Services (MaPS) arranges security, including measures such as:
- a secure reception counter
- swipe cards
- programming of access systems
- duress and intruder alarms
- security cameras
Installation is subject to the lease conditions and any relevant local government or State legislation, and taking into account value for money considerations.
Security of information
Certain information that is routinely collected and stored in offices should be regarded as confidential or sensitive, and protected accordingly. This includes employee details and any personal information provided by constituents. See Management of records for how your office should access, store and dispose of records, in particular sensitive records, and the necessity to distinguish between ‘official’ and ‘non official’ records for access and disposal purposes.
Arrangements that you can set in place to protect confidential or sensitive information include:
- have an employee present at all times when the office is open
- visitors should be supervised while in the office
- sensitive or classified material should not be discussed using a mobile telephone, left on a voicemail system, or sent using email or SMS
- security features on communications devices, such as passwords and personal identification numbers, should be used where available and should not be shared with other people
- papers, documents, communications devices and data storage devices should be locked away when not in use and at the end of the day
- cabinets, cupboards and major items of office equipment should be secured when the office is unoccupied
- employees must ensure any volunteers working in the office have their own computer user account and password and must not use or share accounts or passwords with other volunteers or employees
- computers should be secured with a password protected screen, or turned off, while unattended.
In keeping with the requirements of the Australian Government Information Security Manual all removable media (including external hard drives, USB drives, DVDs and CDs) should be registered with a unique identifier in an appropriate register to allow their movements to be tracked.
Hard drives in networked multi-function devices are the responsibility of the Department of Parliamentary Services, who will ensure their destruction as appropriate.
Incident reports
If your office:
- is broken into, the security company will call the police and notify your office’s nominated contact
- if you witness any suspicious incident, you or your staff should contact your Australian Federal Police liaison contact immediately.
In either case, report any damage to the contracted property services provider and your State Manager as soon as possible. To notify the loss, damage or theft of equipment or assets provided by MaPS, complete:
Each Senator and Member and all MOP(S) Act employees have a range of duties under Commonwealth WHS legislation.
You must report all incidents and near misses in line with the WHS advice provided.
A Notifiable Incident Flowchart is available to help determine which incidents need to be reported to Comcare. You must also notify your Ministerial and Parliamentary Services State Manager as soon as practicable.
See Insurance Cover for information on personal liability insurance and other types of insurance cover provided.
The Employee Assistance Program is available to provide individual counselling or group debriefing sessions following a critical incident. Group sessions can be arranged through your Advice and Support Director.
Contingency plans for emergency or security issues
Your office should:
- have an internal contingency plan for dealing with emergency or security situations, including keeping an up-to-date list of emergency contact numbers (for example the police, ambulance, mental health teams, interpreter and counselling services);
- ensure that the emergency officer and first aid officer roles within your office are filled and all training for these roles is up-to-date
- be familiar with any formal emergency evacuation management plan applicable to building occupants, and comply with directions given by:
- emergency services personnel
- the emergency officer responsible for the office, and/or
- a warden responsible for the building or section of the building in which the office is located.