COVIDSAFE APP LAUNCHED

 Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business
Senator for Western Australia 

26 April 2020

COVIDSAFE APP LAUNCHED

Today, Minister for Health Greg Hunt and the Chief Medical Officer released The COVIDSafe app, which will help keep you, your family and your community safe from further spread of coronavirus through early notification of possible exposure.

The COVIDSafe app is just one of the tools we will use to help protect the health of the community by quickly alerting people who may be at risk of having contact with the virus. The use of the app will help us to move more quickly to reduce restrictions than would otherwise be possible.

Without the assistance of technology, finding people who may have been exposed to the virus relies on people being able to recall who they have been around and knowing the details of every individual they have been in close contact with. In many cases, we don’t know the names and contact details of those we’ve been in close contact with (for example, at the supermarket or on the train). COVIDSafe app uses technology to make this process faster and more accurate and has been developed to ensure your information and privacy is strictly protected.

Collection and use of information from the app is consent based and consistent with the Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles. To further strengthen the app’s privacy arrangements the Health Minister made a Determination under the Biosecurity Act to protect people’s privacy and restrict access to app data to state and territory health authorities for contact tracing. Under that Determination, it will be a criminal offence to use any app data in any other way. It will also be a criminal offence for someone to be refused to enter a premises, participate in an event or receive a service for failing to use the app.

At the end of the Australian pandemic, users will be prompted to delete the app from their phone. This will delete all app information on a person’s phone. The information contained on the highly secure information storage system will also be destroyed at the end of the pandemic.

While COVIDSafe app use is voluntary, all Australians are encouraged to download COVIDSafe app to help ensure we can effectively protect Australians and ensure we can quickly respond to any new cases of COVID-19.

To read the Prime Minister’s statement, please visit: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/covidsafe-new-app-slow-spread-coronavirus

For more information on the COVIDSafe app, please visit: https://www.covidsafe.gov.au/help-topics.html

To download the COVIDSafe app for your iPhone please visit: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/covidsafe/id1509242894

To download the COVIDSafe app for your android device please visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.health.covidsafe

GENERAL INFORMATION

For factsheets on the JobKeeper Payment visit: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/jobkeeper

The Australian Government has released a Coronavirus app and Whatsapp channel.

The App is available on both Android and iPhones. To access the Whatsapp channel, you can go to the website here: aus.gov.au/whatsapp

For school closures (government and non-government) please refer to state and territory education authorities that can be found here: https://www.dese.gov.au/news/coronavirus-covid-19#schools.

For more information on Coronavirus and the Government’s response, please visit: www.treasury.gov.au/coronavirus or www.australia.gov.au.

Alternatively you can contact the business.gov.au support line at 13 28 46.

Regards

Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family BusinessSenator for Western Australia