The claim follows a two-year investigation into MATES (Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Services), a health program administered by the now-defunct University of South Australia under contract from 2004 until the Veterans' Affairs Minister shut it down in 2024 after an ethics review.
Gordon Legal partner Seb O'Meara, who worked on the Robodebt class action settlement, said anyone who used a DVA healthcare card while MATES operated, around 300,000 people including bereaved spouses, could register for the lawsuit. At least 6,000 people have expressed interest in joining.
Lawyers allege most veterans were "not aware of the MATES program" and "did not provide consent for the disclosure of their personal information." The firm will seek damages for breach of confidence in the Victorian Supreme Court.
According to DVA's website, MATES aimed to prevent adverse health outcomes, hospitalisations and unwanted side effects for veterans taking multiple medications. Card payment data, equivalent to Medicare data, was periodically sent to UniSA, including names, addresses, accepted medical conditions and treatments. Patient identity was initially obscured, but where health risks were found, a restricted and small number of staff identified the veteran and contacted their GP.
Mr O'Meara said the legal issue was that DVA enrolled participants without informed consent about who would see their personal information and where it would be stored.
"At the heart of this case is what our own government can do with our personal information, and in particular ... of a reasonably vulnerable cohort of people," he said. "A lot of these people have pretty complex medical histories. They include complex psychiatric and psychological conditions."