Shoalhaven City Council has spent two years and about $95,000 fighting resident Adam Bonner in the Administrative Decisions Tribunal after it used $150,000 in federal funding to install 18 cameras in Nowra's central business district.

The council believes that if a tribunal finds that CCTV coverage in public places captures ''personal information'' as defined by privacy legislation, councils could face ''considerable cost and expense'' defending claims of breaches.

''It also will have the effect of reducing surveillance and CCTV would no longer be available to assist the police,'' it said.

The federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has pledged $50 million for councils to install more CCTV and lighting, should the Coalition win office.

Shoalhaven is seeking the support of other NSW councils to lobby the government to stop a council's use of surveillance in public places being challenged on privacy grounds.

It has put forward a motion for the NSW Local Government Association Conference this month calling for councils to be exempt from some provisions of the legislation.

''There has been uncertainty on whether councils are legally entitled to record footage from CCTV cameras that have been installed in public areas,'' it said.

Mr Bonner argues that Shoalhaven exceeded its powers by installing CCTV and failed to demonstrate that the cameras were ''reasonably necessary'' to prevent crime. He wants the cameras removed but believes the case could force all councils to provide stronger evidence to justify CCTV than simply that an area is a crime ''hot spot''.

''We have seen councils and politicians who are advocates for these cameras … spending large sums of money, without having to show the cameras assist with crime prevention,'' he said.

The NSW Deputy Privacy Commissioner, John McAteer, said he could not comment on the case as he had exercised the commissioner's right to appear in the matter. But when asked if a decision could lead to stricter requirements for councils wishing to install CCTV, he said: ''It could.''

But Mr McAteer said the wording of the council's motion to the conference was ''a little bit naive'' as every person had the right to take a case to the tribunal.

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, said he feared the more likely result was that the government would amend privacy legislation. ''There are boundaries and perhaps councils have been crossing them. What I'd hate to see is the boundaries removed altogether,'' he said.

A spokesman for the Minister for Local Government, Don Page, said Shoalhaven had raised the matter with him but was advised to approach the association.

smh.com.au

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