Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution on the Digital ID Bill 2024 and the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Bill 2023. From pandemics to natural disasters the past few years have shown us why governments must act fast to deliver support and services to Australians when they need it. During the pandemic many Australians familiarised themselves with myGov, which allowed them to access important federal government services from Centrelink to the ATO quickly and easily so that government could deliver all that vital support that was so needed.

Now, almost 10.5 million Australians have a myGov ID—a useful, simple and easy way for them to verify themselves in order to access more than 130 government services. Whether it's filing your taxes or registering your business, myGov ID has become a vital form of ID verification. But there are limitations with the myGov ID system as it currently stands, and these bills will provide a framework to expand and strengthen its use. The bills before the House will ensure that the existing ID system has a strong legislative underpinning by strengthening the existing voluntary accreditation scheme for digital ID services, strengthening the privacy safeguards, expanding the use of digital ID to both states and territories as well as the private sector organisations, and establishing a digital ID regulator.

The current accreditation scheme, the Trusted Digital Identity Framework, is an unlegislated framework. The bills will create a legislative underpinning for the scheme that will be used by providers of digital ID services in both government and private sectors to apply for accreditation. The scheme is voluntary, and those organisations that choose to become accredited will be able to participate and provide services within the Australian government digital ID system. Accreditation will be available for three kinds of digital ID services: attribute service providers, those that verify particular attributes of an individual; identity service providers, those that verify the identity of an individual, enabling the creation of a digital ID as well as the authentication of a digital ID; and identity exchange providers, those that manage the flow of information between other entities.

The bills establish the requirements needed to meet the accreditation as well as the consequences for providers that fail to meet the high standards of accreditation. The Digital ID Regulator, established under this legislation, will be empowered to accredit providers as well as suspend, revoke and cancel accreditations should they fail to adhere to the rules. The bills will also provide the minister with powers to include new kinds of participants as providers, to account for the constantly changing digital landscape.

The requirements that providers must meet and continue to uphold include strong privacy and consumer safeguards. We've seen large-scale data theft occur from Optus to Medibank, and it still continues. Australians are rightly concerned about the handling of their sensitive data. The digital ID should not add to these concerns. In fact, one of the advantages of digital ID is that it reduces the need for Australians to hand over their sensitive information. Digital ID will help Australians prove who they are more safely and quickly, but this advantage relies on digital ID having a strong and robust privacy framework.

The bills before the House today contain within them a range of privacy protections to meet the expectations of Australians, the first being express consent. Digital ID for individuals is entirely voluntary. Those entities participating in the use of digital ID must provide an alternate method for individuals to access their services. Some exemptions will apply for those accessing services in a professional capacity or on behalf of a business. Accredited entities will also be required to ask for express consent from individuals to share their personal information and will be prohibited from data profiling and using personal information for marketing purposes. They will also be restricted from the use of biometric information and its retention. The bills prohibit one-to-many biometric matching, which is the comparison of a person's biometric data against a database of similar data. There are also provisions and safeguards surrounding the access of personal data by law enforcement.

In the event of a data breach, accredited entities will be required to comply with state and territory notifiable data breach schemes or the Commonwealth data breach scheme, as detailed in the Privacy Act. This ensures that the regulator and Australians are notified as soon as possible in the event of a breach, and authorities as well as individuals can act fast to reduce their risk. Entities in breach of privacy safeguards may also be subject to financial penalties to ensure compliance with these rules.

To ensure the proper and continued compliance of the bills, the ACCC will be established as the digital ID regulator. They will be tasked with overseeing the accreditation scheme and the Australian government digital ID scheme. Additionally, the Information Commissioner will be tasked with enforcing the privacy provisions of the scheme and providing advice on request regarding privacy matters. To ensure greater transparency and accountability, an annual report must be provided to the responsible minister and tabled in this parliament, and a statutory review of the bill will commence within two years. A public register will also be established for accredited entities with details of their accreditation status.

Digital ID is a major reform. Australians are increasingly becoming accustomed to the use of digital IDs in various forms, the benefits of which are quite clear, but they also are becoming increasingly worried about their privacy. These bills seek to establish the digital ID scheme to allow Australians to access services more easily whilst ensuring their privacy is not compromised and instead enhanced. Digital ID will bring enormous social and economic benefits to Australians, and it is responsible of the government to ensure that there are systems in place to maximise that benefit. It is an important reform that must be done correctly, and I commend the work of the ministers and departments in putting together the legislation. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context