‘Access all areas’: Function creep guaranteed in Australia's ID Card Bill (No. 1)

Abstract

Australia's Federal Government introduced into Parliament the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007 on 7 February 2007 to establish its ‘access card’ ID system. The Bill is only half of the blueprint for the ID system: the other half is yet to come in a Bill or Bills not yet seen. This paper analyses the Bill and explains the dangerous opportunities for ‘function creep’ that the Bill provides; how the Register will constitute an unprecedented accumulation of personal information on Australians; how it only defines the ‘Commonwealth area’ of the chip and not the equally sensitive ‘cardholder’ area; how offences which are supposed to prevent abuses are illusory in many situations; and how all governments are exempt from offences. The ‘access card’ proposal carries with it the same dangers as the ‘Australia Card’ proposal rejected by Australians 20 years ago, but is more dangerous because of its greater technical sophistication. The ‘access card’ scheme remains extremely contentious and the Bill's passage is not a certainty. An Appendix contains a list of amendments to the Bill which would make it less dangerous, though still misconceived.