Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security I am pleased to present the committee's advisory report on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Both are reintroduced bills that were referred to the committee for review in the 45th parliament. In examining these most recent bills the committee resolved to accept all previous evidence received and was provided with 20 further submissions for this new review. I will speak on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 first. The purpose of this bill is to facilitate a secure, automated and accountable exchange of identity information between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. It proposes to do this through establishing a range of services that identify, recognise or verify a facial image and systems that allow collation, access, use, sharing and disclosure of biometric data.

The bill authorises the Department of Home Affairs to create and maintain facilities, such as an interoperability hub, which would operate as a router for participating bodies to access identity-matching services and the national driver licence facial recognition solution, which would contain identity documents such as drivers' licences from all states and territories. Participating bodies would need a legal basis for accessing the facilities and certain access requirements would apply.

The genesis of the bill came from the need to combat the growing incidence of identity crime, which has devastating impacts on individuals and the economy. The bill seeks to do this by implementing a framework for national identity-matching services as part of measures agreed to by COAG leaders on 5 October 2017 contained within the Intergovernmental Agreement on Identity-matching Services. The bill also serves to boost the effectiveness of existing services through expanding the type and quantity of biometric data and by housing it in a centralised location with strict access criteria.

Many participants to this review expressed broad support for the underlying objectives and rationale of the bill. For example, one submitter welcomed 'measures that aimed to address identity-related crime and enable law enforcement bodies to cooperate to achieve this objective'. Statements such as this were echoed through the evidence the committee received. However, some participants raised with the committee a need to ensure appropriate governance, accountability and protection of the individual's right to privacy. The committee acknowledges these concerns and believes that while the bill's explanatory memorandum sets out governance arrangements such as existing and contemplated agreements and access policy, they are not adequately set out in the current bill. In the committee's view, robust safeguards and appropriate oversight mechanisms should be explained clearly in the legislation.

The committee also expresses broad support for the objectives of the bill but agrees that the bill, as it stands, does not adequately incorporate enough detail. It is for this reason that the committee recommends that the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 be redrafted according to the following principles: (1) the regime should be built around privacy, transparency and subject to robust safeguards; (2) the regime should be subject to parliamentary oversight and reasonable proportionate and transparent functionality; (3) the regime should be one that requires annual reporting on the use of the identity-matching services; and (4) the primary legislation should specifically require that there is a participation agreement that sets out the obligations of all parties participating in the identity-matching services in detail. Additionally, the committee recommends that the redrafted bill be referred to the committee for further review.

The committee also simultaneously examined the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019. The passport bill proposes amendments to the Australian Passports Act 2005, which would authorise the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to disclose information in order to participate in identity-matching services and provides for computerised decision-making in confirming identity. This bill would also support the objectives of the IMS bill by making Australian travel document data available to identity-matching services by the interoperability hub.

Again, submitters supported the broad objectives of this bill. Few objections were raised but there were some concerns regarding the use of automated decision-making, in particular where unfavourable outcomes were made for the subject. Most felt that an element of human decision-making should be kept and that avenues for review of decisions should be implicitly incorporated into the bill. The committee agrees and recommends that the bill should be amended to ensure that automated decision-making can only be used for decisions that produce favourable or neutral outcomes for the subject and that automated decisions should not negatively affect outcomes.

The committee recognises that redrafting of the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 may have consequential effects to the passports bill. Should this occur this, this report also recommends that the amended passports bill also be referred to the committee for further review. I want to reiterate the importance of the objectives of these bills and that these objectives have the committee's full support. Wanting to ensure the safety and security of all Australians is something we all have in common but we also need to protect citizens' rights whilst doing so. I commend the report to the House.

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