Privacy Commissioner
Current
Helen Versey was appointed Victoria's second Privacy Commissioner on 13 March 2007.
Ms Versey qualified as a lawyer in the United Kingdom and came to Australia in 1982. She worked in private practice in the United Kingdom, Darwin and Perth specialising mainly in criminal law, family law and personal injuries litigation.
Before moving to Melbourne in December 2001, Helen worked for 13 years at the WA Equal Opportunity Commission. She was the senior lawyer and acted as Commissioner during the Commissioner’s absences from the office.
Helen has a combined honours degree in law and sociology from Exeter University, U.K. She is trained as a mediator with LEADR (Leading Edge Alternative Dispute Resolvers) and is a member of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law.
Helen was previously Deputy Privacy Commissioner from December 2001 until her appointment as Privacy Commissioner.
2001 - 06
Paul Chadwick was Victoria's first Privacy Commissioner. His term ended on 29 July 2006.
Mr Chadwick trained as a journalist at the Herald and Weekly Times in the 1970s. At The Age in the 80s he established the newspaper's use of the then new Freedom of Information laws. He has published books on FoI and media ownership.
For eight years, he ran the Victorian operations of the Communications Law Centre, Australia's first non-profit organisation to specialise in articulating the public interest dimension of media and communications law and policy.
He served on inquiries into Victorian newspaper ownership and the MEAA/Australian Journalists' Association code of ethics.
In 1997 he received the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.
Before his appointment as Privacy Commissioner, Paul Chadwick practised law at the Melbourne firm Arnold Bloch Leibler.
Top
Last reviewed on 25 September 2008. © 2009 Privacy Victoria - an independent statutory office