Way paved for 'intrusive' smartcard

AAP
May. 10, 2006

THE federal Budget had paved the way for the most intrusive measure in the lives of ordinary Australians in the nation's history, the Australian Democrats said today.

Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja said the Budget had allocated $1.1 billion over four years for the introduction of a health and social services access card that would affect at least three quarters of the population.

"This is one very expensive, very intrusive Big Brother," she said.

"The Government has done nothing in the Budget to reassure Australians about the privacy and financial implication of such a scheme.

"The privacy commissioner gets a miserly $6.5 million over four years, presumably to protect Australians against the misuse of this new system."

The Government plans to establish a micro-chipped access card to replace 17 existing health and social services cards.

By 2010, any Australian wanting access to government health and welfare services will be forced to register for one.

Senator Stott Despoja said the so-called access card was a national ID card in disguise, complete with microchip, card number, biometric photo and possibly sensitive health information.

"The week's resignation of the head of the Government's smart card technology taskforce, Mr James Kelaher, was an early warning sign that the card was a massive policy problem and that issues such as privacy and economic impact had yet to be assessed properly," she said.