Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

These two bills, the Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 and the Identity Verification Services (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023, deal with identity verification. There are many studies that show there are enormous efficiencies for productivity, the economy and red tape to be had through this process. Where we disagree with the government is on the way that it has been done. There are many pages of ink being written about what happened on Saturday. I don't want to relitigate those here, but some of it is about not taking people with you. It's not simply the case that our democracy is about commanding the numbers and doing whatever you want. It can't be like that, and it isn't like that.

It is particularly important in this area because there is some legitimate concern in the community about how privacy is protected, particularly in the digital sphere. Once upon a time we would often think just about DNA or fingerprints. But all of us are walking fingerprints. When you link the prevalence of CCTV across just about every major city and village, every building and every suburb, we are walking facial fingerprints. How the government protects and deals with identity is of real concern to people. They're right to ask that we properly consider that. One of the things I've observed in this place—not just in this parliament but in any other parliaments—is that there is necessarily a technological lag with our understanding of technology and where it's going and our ability to react, compared to what's actually happening in the community. It's moving at a frightening pace. To have done the proper consultation here is important.

I want to give a personal example, something I experienced recently, about how well-intentioned digital verification efforts had real-life consequences for me. I'm not doing it to complain about what happened; I'm just giving it as an example. I had gone to my children's running club at a school. We do that, when parliament is not sitting here, every Tuesday and Friday. One of the joys of that—they're primary school students—is we have breakfast together and then I walk them over to school. We had done that, and I went to pay, and my card didn't work. I thought that was strange. I did another one. It didn't work. I looked at my internet banking, and they were all well over limit. I didn't understand why, but I knew I had to take my kids to school. I then called the bank and realised there was a long wait, so I had to get my brother to quickly come and take my kids to school. Again, I'm not complaining about that. When I eventually got through to the bank, what I found out was they wanted to talk to me about verifying my drivers license, and, to get my attention, they shut down all my banking, when I had kids to take to school. Again, I'm not complaining about me, but I have since learnt that that happened not just with my bank but with many other banks and many other people.

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