Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is about reducing the amount of information that is being held to verify your ID. That information is currently being held in a number of places. Every time you have to prove your ID, where you provide information to different organisations—this is about reducing that. This is in response to Optus. It's in response to Medibank. The private sector wants it in place. They want it regulated. We have the system in place now, and we have private sector ID providers who are unregulated. There's no regulator. The ACCC is going to be put in place. This is a system that's operating now. If people choose to get a digital identity—whether it be a public identity through myGovID or through one of the private sector ones—they are operating in it now. This is about enshrining it in legislation and making sure we've got an accreditation system in place.

I can see all of those up there laughing. I can see what's going to happen. We know what's going to happen. You're going to misrepresent this bill, like Senator Roberts did just then. It is not mandatory. It's voluntary. It's secure. It's safe. People get to control the information that they provide to verify their identity. It's about personal control. The hypocrites on this side, who are sitting here—the opposition—are going to vote against it.