The Digital ID Bill 2024 was recently investigated by the Senate Economics and Legislation Committee.
In its report, the Committee was overall pleased with the numerous benefits that a digital ID scheme will bring to individuals and businesses in Australia. The Bill will:
- legislate and strengthen a voluntary Accreditation Scheme for digital ID service providers that wish to demonstrate compliance with best practice privacy, security, proofing and authentication standards
- legislate and enable expansion of the Australian Government Digital ID System for use by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and eventually private sector organisations
- embed strong privacy and consumer safeguards, in addition to the Privacy Act to ensure users are protected
- strengthen governance arrangements for the Accreditation Scheme and the Australian Government Digital ID System, including by establishing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as the Digital ID Regulator, and expanding the role of the Information Commissioner to regulate privacy protections for digital IDs.
Additionally, some issues raised by the Committee for future amendment included:
- ensuring alternate ways to access services without Digital ID are easy
- a timeframe for the phased roll out of the Government system
- strengthening the position that Digital IDs are inclusive
- law enforcement transparency reporting
- stronger personal control around deactivation and reactivation of Digital IDs
- further restrictions on data retention
- reducing burden on small businesses
- strengthening the requirements around biometric testing
- committing to developing a redress framework
- further limiting data profiling
The Bill is expected to progress through to the House of Representatives in the next sitting period.
For a full reading of the Bill, see here.
