Delay a good start - now drop the Card

Today's Australian IT section leads with the story "Access Card put on the backburner". The Minister for ID Cards, Senator Chris Ellison, has admitted that the timetable to start registering adult Australians by April 2008 is in tatters. The new timetable calls for a 'late 2008' start to the process to register adult Australians on the National Identity Register.

Access Card No Way Campaign [1] has long called for a more considered approach to this very large leap into the unknown. The demands to be made on the citizen, the need for carefully considered legislation and very strict controls over the whole process require calm deliberation. The Senate Committee which rejected the first Bill in March [2] stated

3.192 In the little time the Committee has had to consider the bill, a number of matters of concern have arisen. Furthermore, important measures that need to be taken into account including protections, appeals and review mechanisms are to be considered in a second tranche of legislation. The Committee has concluded that it is not possible to assess the proposed access card system in the absence of these safeguards and other measures. The Committee considers that the bill needs to be combined with the second tranche of legislation into a consolidated bill to allow proper consideration of the access card proposal.

Anna Johnson of the Australian Privacy Foundations No ID Card Campaign called for the end to this extended death throw - "The project management of the access card is in such a state of shambles that the project should be shut down immediately," Ms Johnston said.

"Forty million dollars of taxpayers' money has already been spent this year on external advisers on this project and yet the Government still has not figured out how the access card is supposed to work."

Access Card - No Way !

[1] Access Card No Way Campaign was founded in June 2006 and is Australia's leading voice for protesting the Access Card from a classical liberal philosophy.

[2] Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration
Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007 - inquiry see http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/access_card/report/index.htm

[3] The Australian Privacy Foundation website on the ID / Access Card is here - http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/HSAC.html