Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just like my friend the member for Moreton, I'd also like to make a contribution to the motion on digital identity moved by the member for Menzies. From my experiences so far with private members' business on Mondays in this place, we often see motions put up by those opposite that require a certain degree of rhetorical gymnastics and, like many good literary works, require the reader or the audience to exercise some suspension of disbelief. Many of the motions put up by those opposite—including, to an extent, the motion by the member for Menzies—start with self-congratulation, saying how good the previous government was. This particular motion notes how great the previous government was for, of all things, myGov. Then we are asked to suspend our disbelief for a moment in the lead-up to a great crescendo: despite how great the previous government was with myGov, why isn't the Albanese government fixing the mess? It is a tried and true format, I must say.

This is why I, along with the member for Moreton and others on this side of the chamber, come here on Mondays, to set the record straight. We take a certain degree of umbrage with those opposite in their efforts to be historical revisionists. I can only suspend my disbelief to a certain extent. The member's motion notes there has been only a single meeting of the data and digital ministers since the election of the Albanese Labor government. Given that notice of this motion was given on 7 March, I'm sure the member for Menzies would be delighted to know that the data and digital ministers met an additional time a few weeks prior to that, on 24 February, in Melbourne, with quite a healthy agenda to discuss.

Putting the lie aside for a moment, I'm sure he knows and appreciates this already. But, for the sake of disclosure, I have a great respect for the member for Menzies, as we are co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans, and I do commend the member for Menzies for moving a motion concerning myGov. But digital delivery of government services and digital identity are indeed very important areas of public policy. For millions of Australians myGov is, for better or worse, considered an inevitability of life. It is a platform linking the service delivery platforms of a number of government services, such as the ATO, Centrelink, child support, Medicare and the DVA, to name just a few. Even the stragglers—from those who are a little unfamiliar with using technology all the way to those who proudly call themselves Luddites—saw the intrinsic value in accessing government services through this platform and the necessity to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as we all well know, face-to-face service delivery was severely hampered and was increasingly unsafe for staff and patrons alike.

That is why the previous government put their best and brightest on the case. This may very well have been the case, but unfortunately their best and brightest was the member for Fadden. Between events that he would later be discussing before a royal commission concerning robodebt, the member for Fadden had charge of the Digital Transformation Agency. It was where we got such inspirational moments where he blamed hackers—a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack—for why myGov crashed nationally at a time when people needed most. Thankfully, an election result brought a halt to the constant trend of the member for Fadden failing upward, and the other Minister for Government Services and Minister for Finance can enact positive reforms to myGov.

As the member for Menzies notes, their efforts were described as putting building blocks in place for a better myGov. A school report card would read 'needs improvement'. I guess the magic of it is in the inflection of how you say it.

The other part of the member's motion calls on the government in a very similar fashion to a media release I read from the member for Bradfield upon the release of the myGov user audit. It calls on the Minister for Government Services and the Albanese government to urgently legislate for a national identity framework. It leaves an air of speculation in my bones as to why the Albanese government didn't introduce and pass the Trusted Digital Identity Bill 2021. That's right, in 2021 those opposite were in government. Like many pieces of legislation, the bill didn't lapse when parliament prorogued; the bill died of exposure, sitting there patiently as an exposure draft. I can fondly recall a certain Senator Antic denouncing this bill on The Bolt Report between denouncing whichever ice cream has become woke according to posts he's read on Telegram—the important things that matter in public life.

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