Access Card / ID Card
Timeline of Federal Govt. Smart Card Proposals

Last Updated: 15 Aug 2006

The Government's so-called Access Card system entails high potential for function creep, that is, that it will evolve or morph over time to serve quite different purposes and usages from the originally stated purpose.

During the last two years, there have been strong indications that the government intended to introduce a smart card system to be used for controversial purposes beyond those stated when the Access Card was announced in April 2006.

Below is a time line of Federal Government proposals/plans to introduce a smart card for various purposes which indicate there may be a currently hidden agenda for the so-called Access Card:

26 May 2004: Advance Australia card, The Bulletin.

"The ghost of the doomed Australia Card is alive and well. The federal government is considering the introduction of a compulsory national identification card after the next election, according to a former Liberal Party powerbroker.

Peter Solomon, the head of a company pioneering smart-chip technology in passports and a former senior Liberal who helped preselect John Howard for the seat of Bennelong 30 years ago, has told The Bulletin that the PM and several senior cabinet ministers have backed the proposal and believe the public is ready to accept the idea.
...
According to Solomon, an Australian ID card will also be implemented in stages over the next few years, beginning with the introduction of a new health card capitalising on the revolution in smart card technology. A new Australia Card would help address the government’s immigration and border security concerns. 'Because of the important element of national security, the government – sadly – has come to the view that a multifunction smart card has become a necessity from both national security and efficiency points of view,' he says.

Solomon, the executive director of Intercard Wireless, whose chairman is the former National Party leader Ian Sinclair, adds: 'Once we have the health card in place, we can add Medicare details, tax file number, driver's licence and police data, superannuation details, all aspects of social security – the basis of a truly multifunction card.' ..."

28 Jul 2004: Medicare smartcard launched, Media Release, Tony Abbott.

A Medicare smart card was launched for trial in Tasmania in July 2004. This card was to be optional, offer an option of including a photo and would:

"operate in conjunction with HealthConnect - a secure, IT-based integrated health record which will give treating health professionals access to information about procedures, treatments and tests (with patient permission) and which will give patients more control over their health records. ...
Patients who do not wish to be part of HealthConnect can continue to use their existing Medicare cards and access medical services and Medicare rebates in the normal way."

12 Nov 2004: Welfare plan reeks of 'apartheid', Mark Metherell, Sydney Morning Herald.

"Among proposals put forward in a confidential cabinet paper were that parenting payments be conditional on children attending school and receiving health checks, and the introduction of smart cards that prevent the use of government benefit payments to buy alcohol."

11 Nov 2004: Smart card push to ensure welfare's not wasted, Belinda Hickman, The Australian.

"Smart cards that link welfare payments to the purchase of clothing, electricity or food are being considered by Aboriginal leaders, and could be available within 12 months with sufficient government support.
ATSIC deputy commissioner Lionel Quartermaine said the technology was attractive because it could prevent parents squandering government payments on alcohol, cigarettes or gambling. ...
Though he has not discussed the issue with government since a meeting with Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone last year, he cautiously welcomed a government proposal that smart cards be used to direct payments and stop indigenous people using money to buy alcohol. ..."

11 Nov 2004: Dodson labels Indigenous welfare reforms 'discriminatory', The World Today, ABC Radio.

"...Canberra has flagged using smart cards to stop Indigenous people using welfare money to buy alcohol.

This morning, the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone said the initiatives are not about Canberra telling Indigenous Australians what to do.
...
MICK DODSON (Chair of the ANU's School of Indigenous Studies): Well, well, you know, what's going to be next? Are we going to have pass cards, are we going to introduce a new era of apartheid in this country? I mean, is this going to happen across the board, or is it only going to happen to Aboriginal people? Are non-Aboriginal people going to have apartheid-like pass cards, or apartheid-like smart cards that compel them to spend their money in a particular way?"

24 Jan 2005: Tackling tax and welfare, The Gold Coast Bulletin.

"Yesterday the Federal Member for Moncrieff, Steve Ciobo, outlined his bold and controversial blueprint for redrawing Australia's welfare system including 'smart cards' in lieu of payments. Here is an edited version of his speech to the Federal Young Liberal Convention in Tasmania
...
Today I, and others in the Coalition, are steeled in our resolve to have wide ranging tax and welfare reform introduced in this new Parliament so future generations of Australians can better enjoy the spoils of their enterprise and recognise their responsibility for self sufficiency.

In this vein, I foreshadowed a proposal which would see those unemployed for a period of two years be subject to an enhanced requirement for mutual obligation. After two years, rather than being stripped of the benefit as a number of other countries do, I propose recipients would be required to undertake the mutual obligation activities full time in return for their taxpayer support. Those who did not participate or who display a lack of commitment to their obligations, would have the nature of their support benefit altered.

This alteration would be in the form that the quantum of the support would be the same, however, future payments would be via a rechargeable smart card, less a small proportion which would continue to be credited to the recipient's bank account. This smart card would then permit the recipient to still continue to have purchasing choices, constrained however, by not having access to cash withdrawals or to certain facilities and stores, for example casinos, electronic gaming machines in pubs and clubs etc. Additionally, there could be provision for apportioned credit on the smart card if appropriate - for example, amounts reserved for utilities and groceries and the like.
...
Over time, if successful, this model may also have application to recipients of single parent payments once the recipient's youngest child attains school age. ..."

15 July 2005: Transcript Of Doorstop Interview With Prime Minister John Howard, Washington DC

"JOURNALIST: On the ID card issue, Prime Minister, when do you hope to see something, as you say it’s now on the table, when would we see further development?

PRIME MINISTER: Well I can’t tell you that - it is on the table. What I am saying is that in the wake what has happened in London you naturally have a look at everything again and this is one of those issues. We shouldn’t see an ID card as being a solution to the problem but I do think the world is different from what it was in the late 1980’s when that issue was lasted debated in Australia and therefore people who might have had a view and I as you all know, was opposed to the Australia Card, but that was 17-18 years ago. The world is very very different since then and may be this is one of the things that is needed to be added our armour, maybe… it’s in that context that I said the matter was back on the table."

20 Jan 2006: Health ID Cards: Breaking Down The Political and Technical Barriers, Kevin Woodward, Card Technology Magazine.

"...So few people signed up for the voluntary [Medicare smart] card that the committee is starting over, and incorporating lessons from the first attempt. A new card could be operational this year or in 2007, if the government approves the project.

The regional pilot, in Tasmania, wasn't large enough, says Suzanne Roche, a member of the government's inter-departmental committee working on the cards.
...
Because the card population was so small in Tasmania, Roche and the committee didn't get a clear sense of how such a smart card might work nationally. There is still a need for a larger pilot, she says.

Roche and her colleagues have rethought what the card should do and how it fits into Australia's government-sponsored health insurance plan. Now, the committee knows moving to a smart card for health identification also means ensuring citizens will want to use it.

That's led the committee to consider tying as many government social services to the card as feasible. This one card could replace 26 now used for these services, Roche says. ..."

21 Jan 2006: The Federal Attorney General announced during a speech titled "A safe and secure Australia: An update on counter-terrorism" that:

"... The Government will also be undertaking an independent review of the national identity card proposal.

After the London bombings the Prime Minister made it clear that everything was back on the table, including the possibility of a national identity card.

We will be asking what are the benefits of a national identity card, what are the associated costs of a national identity card and do the benefits of the card outweigh the costs or vice versa?..."

27 March 2006: ID card plan for health, welfare, Samantha Maiden, The Australian.

"Australians could be issued with a health and welfare smart card ... under a plan to be debated by federal cabinet this week.

Families and individuals could ... have Medicare and Centrelink funds automatically credited to the card. ...

Over time, the cards could also be used by parents to provide photo ID when picking up children from childcare."

27 Mar 2006: Smart card back on the agenda, Michelle Grattan, The Age.

"After John Howard and the premiers discussed the smart card at the Council of Australian Governments meeting last year, Mr Hockey has also been working with the states, which are co-ordinating a roll-out of a smart driver's licence, a project led by the Beattie Government."

30 Mar 2006: Smartcard may go further: Costello, Michelle Grattan and Jewel Topsfield, The Age.

"Mr Costello said data stored on the card would have to include, for example, ... how often a person had drawn down on pharmaceutical services. ...

Government sources said yesterday ... Under the scheme, those who lived within the footprints of the disaster-affected area would automatically have the payments credited to their cards."

24 Apr 2006: Cabinet split over ID security, Richard Barker, The Age.

"...A ministerial briefing paper obtained under freedom of information laws reveals the close links between the proposed smartcard and any form of national ID. The Department of Finance paper, written in July last year, said there was a 'strong relationship' between ID cards and access to electronically delivered government services.

'Should the Government introduce a national ID card, it would likely be the prime authentication token for gaining access to government and private sector services," the paper reported.'"

26 Apr 2006: Government to proceed with Access Card, Media Release, Prime Minister.

27 Apr 2006: ID supercard to end welfare fraud, Malcolm Farr, Daily Telegraph.

"The Government believes NSW alone could save up to $100 million a year in rorted welfare. This was because NSW relied heavily on Commonwealth pensioner cards when allocating benefits such as rental assistance and electricity discounts."

28 Apr 2006: Police to access smart-card data, James Riley, The Australian.

"Intelligence agencies and police will be given access to a vast database of 'biometric' photographs of Australians to be created for the new health and welfare smart card.
ASIO and Australian Federal Police will have access to the smart-card database on security issues, while state police will have restricted access for general crime investigations."

29 Apr 2006: Silly secret squirrels, Dennis Atkins, The Courier Mail.

"Former Australian electoral commissioner Colin Hughes points out the Electoral Act amendments due to be debated in coming weeks demand that a drivers licence or 'prescribed class of document' be provided when enrolling to vote.

Hughes asks whether the 'smart card' will replace the drivers licence -- a document of poor integrity -- as the primary proof of identity or if it will be included on the list of prescribed documents. He also wants to know if enrolling and voting will be a 'government service' for which the new card is intended. ...

We don't know the answers (just as we don't know the details of the [Qld] tunnel plan) because governments operate on the basis of least said the better.
Welcome to the mushroom society."

1 May 2006: Driver's licence links ID powers, Graham Lloyd, The Courier Mail.

"Hi-tech drivers' licences may be linked to the Federal Government's proposed new smart card to save money and give sweeping powers to identify and check the details of users.

The proposed smart card driving licence will allow owners to be identified whether carrying the card or not.

And it will give police and other agencies access to vast amounts of personal information held on government computers.

The linked card will have powers well beyond the Medicare and welfare access announced last week by Prime Minister John Howard. ...

Queensland Transport minister Paul Lucas yesterday confirmed the State Government would seek urgent talks with the Commonwealth to discuss joining the two schemes. ... he said the Federal Government could save a significant amount by working closely with the state governments. ...

He said the card operated only as an authentication device and all the information was stored on the government database.

'It's not the picture on the card that is important but the picture that comes up on the database when the card is scanned,' he said."

12 May 2006: Disaster card plan triggers storm, Mark Metherell, Sydney Morning Herald.

"Supermarkets may be able to use the proposed smartcard to access government benefits paid to consumers hit by civil disasters. ...

"Now the technology has a capacity to be able to help in that regard ... it is no good if Coles and Woolies can't access the card to find out whether you are entitled to emergency assistance," Mr Hockey said. ...

'There will be instances where there will be a tension between consumer demand for services, and ongoing protection of privacy,' [Mr Hockey] said."

12 May 2006: Commercial access on the cards, James Riley, The Australian.

"Private companies, including retailers like Coles and Woolworths, may be given broad access to government's health and welfare smart card to help deliver emergency payments and other welfare benefits.

Minister Joe Hockey's Human Services department also said the smart card could be used in future to allow welfare payments to carry restrictions, such as allowing the purchase of groceries, but not cigarettes or alcohol.

But while the smart card was capable of delivering new payment programs - such as direct-debiting a portion of welfare payments to cover rent and utilities bills, as Families Minister Mal Brough has proposed - Mr Hockey said those payment policy decision would be made by the portfolio ministers.

It was likely that private companies with access to the banking sector's EFTPOS network would be able to read the basic details held on the card but final decisions would not be made until the plans had been publicly debated."

25 May 2006: Plan to handle rush, Lachlan Heywood, Courier Mail.

"People could start signing up for a national smart card within months as part of an early registration scheme. The Federal Government is considering the move to avoid being swamped by millions of applicants when the new card comes on line in early 2008. ...

Mr Hockey said the development of the card still had a long way to go, but could ultimately be extended to other levels of government and the private sector. ..."

2 June 2006: Child ID cards in swipe at fraud, Stephanie Peatling, Sydney Morning Herald.

"Every child will be tracked through the child-care system, allowing the Federal Government to simultaneously map places and shortages and crack down on fraud. ...

Once [child-care] centres are linked by the computer system, parents will be given a number for each child and either a swipe card or PIN that will monitor how many hours their children spend in care and allow for the automatic calculation of their benefit.

It has not yet been decided if this will be done through the welfare smart card formally announced this month, which the Government eventually wants to use to administer all its payments. ..."

13 June 2006: The $1 billion house of cards, Nick Miller, Next, Sydney Morning Herald.

"...The KPMG report also dreams of future possibilities, such as a system tracking PBS safety-net transactions. It sees other commonwealth and state agencies immediately using the card for proof of identity."

4 July 2006: Minister flags e-purse on ID smartcard, The Australian IT, Karen Dearne

"Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has opened the door for businesses to piggyback on the platform being developed for the federal government's services access smartcard.

'Smartcard technology provides us with the opportunity not just to roll out a new card, but to roll out new infrastructure,' Mr Hockey said.

'It will provide a platform others can build on. The important thing is that the standards rolled out by the public sector are consistent with those adopted by the private sector.'

Once the access card infrastructure is in place, other providers will be able to load various applications on to cards."