The smart card is a solution seeking a purpose.

This situation is now common in government where increasingly the agenda is being driven by large contractors who not only have the ear of policicians but probably have a solid 'monkey' grip of nether regions as well. Such contractors are already siphoning off many millions of dollars a year that were originally intended for clients. Private contractors have become dependent on ever-increasing government business. It is all done in the name of 'efficiency' of course and they can 'prove' that too (but of course!).

I have seen for instance, personal data of thousands of people being used to pre-test IT systems and with the printouts being discarded in wheelie bins in a public place to be collected by the ordinary garbage service. The data included the usual personal details, government benefits and banking details and no, it was not Centrelink. Fraudsters know to 'mine' waste bins for personal information.

On a daily basis managers of both public and private organisations breach the confidentiality of client records for claimed business purposes or for their own convenience.

Taking it from the other end, what 'client' of government or of a private company for that matter, has been greeted with full cooperation and assistance when trying to identify and obtain copies of information held pertaining to them? The answer is that public and private managers alike are very resistent and regard such requests as impositions upon them because they regard the information as 'theirs' not 'yours'. They are strongly motivated to avoid embarrassment through review of their decisions. Also, they are aware the data held might not be correct or is being used (for a purpose) outside of the original stated purpose.

As regards the 'new' ID card, there has already been misrepresentation of its purpose because its design deliberately assists later 'enhancement' for flexibility in mining and using the data.

Finally, the government talks big about security however a sure-fire way of creating a security problem is to put the information in one place and label it as secret.

NO CARD-NO WAY!
The number of violent men who have gained access to ex-spouses, just belting some, killing others, along with the children, has not been mentioned. Yet it is far more common than most of us can bear to think about. One card is simply playing into the hands of these men, and it will be a godsend to them, enabling them to track the whereabouts of those they wish to 'punish' by using one data-base so much more simple. How convenient. I wonder who the Lobby Group is who is pressuring Mr Howard to introduce this one card? One can but ask.
Arcticdog

If we think of the Access Card, ID card whatever you wish to call it as a way for a person to identify themselves rather than as a way for the government or others to identify them then the "solution" to the privacy issue is obvious. Let us have an Access Card but let us NOT have a government database behind it. That is, give people a way of creating their own Access Card that they control, own and issue from their own database about themselves. It can be done and is part of the world wide move to Identity 2.0 Internet standard which gives control of online data to individuals. There is no need to create the very expensive government Access card infrastructure to achieve the same result. As someone has suggested why not make Medicare cards and other existing cards more secure but where the identification aspect of the card is under the control of the individual.

Ok, just how does the government decide who gets one of these new fangled cards then? We already know there are more tax file numbers than people and more medicare cards floating about than people.

They can not determine who exactly is real and who isn't already. Unless they finger/ iris/ retina scan everyone when they give them a card and cross match it with the scans of everyone that already has one I don't think they can ensure that there is one card per person in the country. SO there goes the anti terrorist thing.

Why do we need a card with everything on it that my Drivers licence has? Whay can't we just use those then?

Oh and as far as data safety goes, I live by this rule;

If they can make it then there's some 15 year old sitting in his bedroom that can break it.

Nita it can be done.

You now prove who you are in the "real world" when you need to by producing documentation of relationships with organisations and finding people who know you to vouch for you. Imagine you can create an electronic document of the fact that you have relationships that have been verified by the other parties. You do not keep any information about the relationship only that it exists. To prove who you are you ask those people with whom you have the relationships to provide whatever information is required by another party for them to trust you.

OK it sounds complex but it is what we do in the "real world" and in the electronic world we can automate most of the processes so that we do the identification easily everytime we need to do it and so the government does not need to keep records of our identity only the fact that we exist. Each government department knows us by a different number. Each organisation knows us by a different number.

It is simple and inexpensive to do.