Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight during the grievance debate I would like to talk about two issues. One is relevant to my electorate of Farrer, and that concerns apprentices and apprenticeships. The other is related to my role as spokesperson for justice and customs within the opposition and is relevant to everybody in this place, and that concerns identity fraud. Identity fraud is something that we need to be particularly well aware of this week, because 13-17 October is National Identity Fraud Awareness Week. I would like to give members some sense of what this means when it happens to an individual, how easy it is to have your identity stolen and what you should do to make sure that it does not happen.

Identity fraud occurs when a person’s personal information is used, without their knowledge, by someone else to obtain credit, goods or other services fraudulently. Victims of identity theft bear significant financial and emotional costs in regaining their identity and credit ratings, and the Rudd Labor government really does need to work to improve identity security, to fight identity crime and to protect the identities of innocent Australians from being used for illegal purposes.

One of the most common ways in which one’s identity can be stolen is quite obvious, and that is raiding bins for information found on bank and credit card statements. It is amazing how many people throw these statements out with their ordinary rubbish and then they end up at the tip, or somebody simply lifts the lid of the bin and helps themselves. Internet sites regularly ask users to share personal information to gain access to websites and to buy goods. Fraudsters can combine the personal information—such as your mother’s maiden name—that you provide to unsecured internet sites with other bits of valuable information that they find out about you to obtain credit in your name. Card skimming occurs when a shop assistant or waiter, for example, gets your information by skimming or copying your credit card information when you make a purchase. This information is then often onsold to professional criminal organisations. If you leave your credit or debit card at a restaurant or retail outlet, do not ring them and say, ‘Yes, it is there,’ and go back and pick it up, because during that time any amount of fraud can be conducted in your name.

Mail forwarding is another method. By completing change-of-address forms to redirect mail, fraudsters can receive a wealth of information about you delivered to their nominated address or post office box. ‘Phishing’ is a term that describes identity theft via email. Fraudsters will send an email claiming to be from a bank or other official organisation and ask for urgent information whereby you have to enter account details and passwords to update your account. I am sure we have all received those, and some of them look incredibly realistic. For example, I applied for a debit card recently in order to get out of the credit card rate race. Immediately, my inbox was flooded with very realistic emails from the bank asking that I update my information and provide seemingly innocent information. I know that many people do fall into this trap.

Another obvious case of having your identity stolen is when your purse or wallet is stolen. When something is stolen, it is tedious, time consuming and difficult to go through all of the things that you need to do to re-establish cards, bank accounts and Medicare et cetera, but you need to do that and you need to be very vigilant from that point onwards if you believe that you have had some part of your identity stolen.

To actively prevent identity fraud, people need to check their credit reports at credit reference agencies to ensure that no credit or other accounts have been illegally set up in their name. They can do this with three main agencies in Australia—Baycorp Advantage, Dun and Bradstreet and the Tasmanian Collection Service. They need to shred all documents to ensure that fraudsters cannot build up a profile based on the information they discard in their rubbish, stay safe online by making sure they have the latest security patches and up-to-date antivirus software installed, protect their incoming mail, lock their mailbox, pay attention to billing cycles and contact creditors immediately if their bills arrive late—as a missing bill could mean that a fraudster has taken over their account. Passwords help to provide extra protection to important accounts. We noted the high-profile case of hacking when US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin had her email hacked into. It was a relatively easy process, I understand. People should use passwords that are very difficult for others to figure out, even if they may forget them themselves. They should be vigilant and aware of anybody who contacts them unexpectedly asking for personal information. A couple of quick examples will highlight the problem.

In 1997 a 24-year-old female applied for 61 credit cards in false names; 45 were granted. Some of these identities were fictitious but many of them were real, including those of some people known to her from her school days. This resulted in the destruction of access to credit for many, one of whom also suffered the additional indignity of being named by the applicant as her co-offender and mentor in the frauds. In another case, a male assumed the identities of four babies who had died in the 1970s by obtaining their birth certificates. Over an eight-month period he obtained $20,800 in the form of unemployment benefits in the dead infants’ names. He was arrested in possession of many false proof-of-ID documents to support his welfare claims, including motor vehicle learners permits, mobile phone accounts, student cards, rental leases and bank account access cards. So please do not let this happen to you.

Increasingly, the world of modern innovative telecommunications intersects with transnational global crime. High-tech affects us all every day and it is very useful and handy to have access to these sorts of tools. Yet the ability to commit fraud is increasing. There need to be some very serious proactive measures by governments, because the tools that fraudsters are using are often barely even thought of. For example, on an ordinary website that I check every day, I noticed an advertisement today for sending money to various banks in India. All you need is your cell phone. In the old days we used to hear of money being wired across the world and that was a big deal. But this is something that is morphing. A few details are entered into a computer and something comes up on your cell phone, which you then take to a financial institution, and it is turned into money. The other side of this, of course, is the way in which money is laundered around the world. This has devastating effects and is linked with organised crime. National Identity Fraud Awareness Week is this week.

In the time remaining, I want to talk about the importance of apprenticeships to all Australian families and my concerns about apprentices in my electorate at the moment. A major concern we have is the lack of staff to supervise and train apprentices. I say that because at the moment, with the possibility—in fact, some would say the inevitability—of the economy turning downwards, the willingness of employers to invest in apprentices is likely to back off. We need small and larger businesses, but particularly small businesses, to take that time to supervise, train and invest in apprentices. But too often we find that when the job market does take a turn for the worse, first-year apprentices are the first to go because they are of the least value to the company. That is devastating for the young people involved because they have, in many cases, worked hard to get themselves on this first rung of their working life. The money is not good. They have probably given up a lot to be there. It is so important that in times of increasing unemployment special measures need to be put in place to protect apprentices. I have certainly argued for this in the context of the town of Broken Hill in my electorate of Farrer, which recently lost over 400 workers from the Perilya mine, mainly due to the downturn in the price of zinc. Caught up in this are the apprentices who work in the mine, and it is most important that if the mine is not able to give them a job then some program be introduced into the local community to help the other employers support these apprentices in the short term until they can get back into employment in their chosen field so that we do not lose them.

I certainly noticed during my time as the member for Farrer that the previous government invested a lot in apprenticeships. It established Australian technical colleges that were hitting the ground running. We now have this government’s trade training schools. I do not think they are going to do the job nearly as well. A key focus of the previous government’s tech colleges was their industry focus and their endorsement by industry, and this is the key for any apprentice or trades training effort—that is, that it be very closely linked to the activities in the region so that the link between industry, the training provider and the apprentice works well and the results are positive for everyone. As Andrew Pressler from West State Training in Broken Hill said recently:

Apprentices need to learn the balance of work placement and TAFE classes. The final year is all on-site training and they need that time to settle in.

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