Privacy Commissioner comments on Access Card draft Bill

The Privacy Commissioner has suggested in a submission to the Office of the Access Card that a number of amendments be made to the Exposure Draft of the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, including:

• The guiding policy setting for the register should be to collect the minimum amount of personal information and this should be reflected in the legislation.
• While the Draft states that it is not an object of the Bill that access cards be used as a 'national identity card', it is suggested that community trust be further enhanced by recasting this provision and including a statement that the objects of the Bill include to prohibit the access card being used as a national identity card.
• The legislation should state that the access card number (and related identifiers) do not become unique identifiers for each individual, which could be used, shared or adopted by Australian Government agencies, State and Territory agencies, or the private sector.
• The legislation should prescribe, in detail, a statutory process for assessing and approving any future uses of the access card and associated systems (such as the register).