On Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Ed Byrne leaked approximately 300 pages of travel claim documents for a former political employee contained in personnel files from 1999. Byrne admitted he leaked the documents once the police were asked to investigate a possible breach of security in the Natural Resources Building.

"I have today written the Attorney General and asked him to conduct a full investigation into the release of this information and the laws that Minister Byrne has broken," said Mr. Grimes. "Our lawyers have indicated several sections of the Freedom of Information Act and potential privacy issues that were breached. We are going to meet over the weekend to discuss whether further legal or civil proceedings should be brought forward against this minister and government.

"There is legislation to be followed in obtaining this kind of information and releasing it to the public. People submit freedom of information requests and it goes through a process before any information is released. During this process, all personal information is supposed to be removed from documents and the Department of Justice conducts an analysis for potential legal implications. None of this was done in this case.

"We were very disappointed to hear that the premier was aware of these actions and approved this release. As a result, any implications from this investigation will also have to be shared by him and his office. It is unfortunate that these people are willing to use their authority and abuse their power to release whatever information they wish without going through the proper due process. This cannot be allowed to continue. If a minister has a right to go on a witch hunt and demand access to this kind of information, what next? Will they be looking through people’s medical records and trying to embarrass people that way? This kind of abuse of power is not good for the democratic process and I think there is something fundamentally wrong with what has been done here."