The Federal Government has unveiled the new plans to bolster its controversial My Health Record legislation, in response to growing concerns about privacy.
The changes will include increased penalties for misuse of health data, and ensuring the data of domestic violence victims is tightly controlled.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told the A-B-C he's confident the system is secure.
"This is absolutely a private system and the proof is that after six years and six-million enrollments, there still hasn't been a single case that's been idenfitied of abuse of my health information. So it is a remarkably strong system by Australian and international standards."
Mr Hunt says the changes are in response to a Senate inquiry that recently expressed "deep concerns" about loopholes in the system.
"Well these, of course, the changes that have come about, most of these have only recently raised as potential future issues. Again, no individual cases after six million people in six years, but signficantly, we're very happy to take on board proposals and suggestions to change Labor's original legislation."
One change would mean those found guilty of improper use of My Health Record data would face up to five years in jail, and the maximum fine would be doubled, to 315-thousand dollars.
Another reform would be moving to ban abusive partners from accessing the record, after concerns they could use the 'parental responsibility' clause to track down their fleeing families.
Mr Hunt says health information will also be inaccessible to private health insurers and employers won’t be able to request, or use, an individual's health information.
"We've also ensured that there will be no access by any legal authorities or the ATO, or other bodies without a court order. It has very very strong protections but the real point here is that the whole nature of this system is to actually save and protect lives."
But some critics still aren't convinced.
Privacy law expert from the University of Canberra Dr Bruce Arnold, has told the A-B-C the system will still be at risk of leaking private information.
"We have a system where more than 900,000 people will have access to this data. We have a national privacy watch dog, that has a culture of being very submissive. A watch dog that is grossly under resourced. "))
17-million Australians have been automatically enrolled to My Health Record, with 1-point-1-million choosing to opt-out.
People have until the 15th of November to do the same if they don't want a record created on their behalf.
Dr Arnold says he's not surprised people are deciding against the digital health record.
"I think it's rather concerning that we have a large number of doctors, certainly doctors that i speak to, GPs, specialists, we even have members of the government, being quite explicit, OK, not happy with this system. Don't trust the way it's being set up, don't trust the way it's being managed, I'm opting out, and indeed, encouraging other people to do that."
Callers to the My Health Record opt-out helpline were told the system had crashed on Tuesday morning, in what the Australian Digital Health Agency, which is responsible for managing the record, described as a minor technical glitch.
But Federal Labor M-P Anne Aly [[AH-lee]] has told Sky News technical failures are indicative of more problems to come.
"I'm not surprised that the system has crashed with so many people wanting to withdraw from My Health given this government's appalling track record with the internet and with the census. Australian's are rightly suspicious of this government's capacity to be able to handle their privacy and their confidentiaity of their information."))
While the Federal government did include almost all of Labor's amendments in its reforms, Ms Aly says Labor still has serious concerns for privacy.
"I'd like to see voters being given assurances that their privacy is protected, that their confidentiality is protected, that they're not going to have their address or their contact details leaked to somebody who may wish them harm."
Mr Hunt will introduce the amendments when federal parliament returns in late November.
