[Infowarrior] - AUS to require national ID card in 2010

[Richard Forno]

Official: national card due by 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/official-national-card-due-by-2010/2006/
04/26/1145861419456.html

By Louise Dodson and Stephanie Peatling
April 27, 2006
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AUSTRALIANS will need a photo identity card within four years to receive
Medicare and welfare payments but will not be forced to carry it at all
times.

The new "smart card" will contain "enhanced security" and replace 17
existing cards for Medicare benefits, family tax, child-care and
unemployment payments, pensions, Austudy and pharmaceutical and transport
concessions.

People will be able to register for the card from the beginning of 2008 and
it will be phased in over two years.

The card will also be used to check identities for immigration and security
purposes and to crack down on fraud. Its embedded computer chip will include
a photograph, number, signature, date of birth and address.

>From 2010 people will not be able to receive government health and welfare
payments without a card.

People may choose to have other information stored on the card, such as
health and emergency contact details which, for example, ambulance officers
could use.

Although it will cost $1 billion it is estimated it will save the Government
$3 billion a year.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said the Government had considered a
national identity card after last year's London bombings but in the end it
"was not predisposed to adopt a national ID card".

He denied the card was "a Trojan horse for an ID card" but acknowledged it
would have "enhanced security features".

He said the security features of the smart card were one reason that a
separate national identity card was not deemed necessary. Its perceived "Big
Brother" features were another reason.

The Government's decision followed a number of cabinet debates. Mr Howard
said it showed a balance had been struck between ease of access to
government payments and enhanced security measures on the one hand and
legitimate concerns about storing personal information on the other.

However some of his ministers think of it as an identity card. Before the
announcement the Treasurer, Peter Costello, referred to it as just that, and
then corrected himself.

The NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, whom Mr Howard consulted before the
announcement, welcomed the card.

He said it was possible to balance threats to security with individual
rights.

However, the president of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, Cameron
Murphy, said the card would put people at risk of identity theft and fraud.

"Everybody is interested in streamlining accessibility to government
services," he said.

"It's really how you go about doing it and ensuring any system is safe and
secure and people aren't forced to provide information that is unnecessary
and exposes them to the risk of fraud."

The president of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman,
said the announcement "marked a move towards an eventual ID card".

Business reacted suspiciously, saying it could easily turn into an identity
card.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's chief, Peter Hendy, said
that although he supported clamping down on welfare fraud he was concerned
that "an upgraded card runs the risk of providing government with a platform
for a far more costly and intrusive Australia Card-type proposal".

The Opposition's human services spokesman, Kelvin Thomson, gave in-principle
support to the card but warned of a potential cost blow-out.