Australian Regulatory Compliance Review

Access Card update

Chair of the Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, Professor Allan Fels AO, has released the first discussion paper developed by the Taskforce on the health and social services access card.

The Discussion Paper outlines the Government's proposal for the new access card and discusses some of the issues that require public consideration and debate.

The Taskforce has been established by the Government to provide independent advice directly to the Minister for Human Services about how consumers will use the card and the subsequent privacy considerations. It expects to release further Discussion Papers during the current consultation period.

Professor Fels said the Taskforce had identified key questions which need to be immediately addressed:

• how any new card can be prevented from evolving into a national identity card
• the administrative or legislative basis upon which the new card should be established
• the impact on personal privacy of introducing an access card
• the consumer benefits or otherwise of having an access card

Submissions on this Discussion Paper can be made up to 27 July.

PS I have set up a new Access Card category (see right hand column) so that you can see all posts on the one page.

Access card or National ID card?

The Australian Privacy Foundation says the proposed health services access card has all the features of the cancelled Australia Card and worse privacy dangers.

Access Card costings and privacy

The Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has released the business case prepared by KPMG for the health and social services access card.

Instead of the Advisory Board recommended by KPMG he has established an independent Consumer and Privacy Taskforce and appointed Professor Allan Fels, AO to chair it.

More

Access Card and Privacy

The introduction of Australia's proposed access card (formerly known as the health smart card) will be monitored by an Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce to be headed up by Professor Allan Fels, AO.

Human Services Minister Joe Hockey announced that consumer and privacy organisations can contact Professor Fels through the Office of Access Card:
Mail: PO Box 3959 Manuka ACT 2603
Email: a.fels@humanservices.gov.au
Telephone: (02) 6223 4739
General information about the access card is available on its website

When is a smartcard an identity card

Queensland has already announced a driver's licence smartcard.

The Commonwealth Government has now announced a health and welfare services smartcard which seems to rule out a compulsory national security ID card.

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An Australian national identity card?

The Commonwealth Attorney General, Philip Ruddock has indicated he will launch an inquiry into whether or not a national ID card will be introduced.

Speaking to ABC radio he said

"the question is whether or not, in terms of people being able to satisfactorily identify themselves, and people being satisfactorily identified for a range of other purposes, a form of national identifier would in cost benefit terms be useful...

The major concern I’ve always had... is with the information the government does hold about individuals and the question you have to look at always is, whether information that is held should be pooled and with a national identifier you don’t have to do that.

At the moment we have legislation that deals with data matching and allows matching of information for certain purposes, but not for others. And when it relates to information of a health character, for instance, or matters of people’s financial affairs, tax details, people want to be assured that their privacy in relation to those matters won’t be breached.

A universal system of identification shouldn’t necessarily do that and the protections that we have now ought to be able to be maintained even if you do introduce such a system."

UPDATE : OFFBEAT...if we are going to have an identity card, let's think about how we can use technology and design to protect our privacy and be useful: look at the IDEO Identity Card Concept Project