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Public Hearing | 9 Feb 2024: Digital ID Bill 2023

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UNSW Allens Hub for Technology Law and Innovation

The UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation (‘UNSW Allens Hub’) is an independent community of scholars based at UNSW Sydney.

During the inquiry into the government’s Digital Identity Bill, I asked representatives from the UNSW Allens Hub about their submission, which included data from India where digital identity was originally supposed to be voluntary but has become mandatory, and has resulted in restrictions on citizens despite government guarantees at the outset.

Their position is that legislative frameworks and protections should exist to prevent overreach from both government and non governmental authorities. Safeguards should be put in place to protect citizens who are being provided with essential services via digital identity to combat the power creep that we saw with the Director’s ID.

What is becoming clear, and the cautionary tale from India bears this out, both governments and private companies are embracing, with equal enthusiasm, the application of digital identity for all as the most convenient system for their purposes. Yet, what does this mean for Australians’ privacy and data given the cyber-security failures we have already seen from government and the private sector?

Human Technology Institute

At the Digital Identity inquiry I spoke with representatives of the Human Technology Institute, an industry body that promotes human rights in the development, use, regulation and oversight of new technology. Their comments make it clear that there needs to be strengthened legislation to improve privacy and other human rights protections with regards to the government’s Digital ID.

The government’s Digital ID Bill is part of the triad of tyranny, which is currently being whisked with indecent speed through what should have been a more careful scrutinising and debating process.

Surely privacy and human rights were not going to be left out of the new “trusted” digital identity that the Albanese government is keen for us all to embrace?

Australian Banking Association

At the Digital Identity Inquiry in Canberra, I questioned the Australian Banking Association about how Australians who don’t want a digital ID would lead a normal life without one.

I also asked how internet outages would impact on people’s lives when they rely on a digital identity to access their money.

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Say NO to the Government’s tracing App

Prime Minister Morrison has spoken of the need for a tracking phone app, to help the government trace people who may have been infected with COVID-19.

The PM is refusing to rule out the app being made compulsory on your phones.

The privacy implications of this are frightening.

This app would create a record of your movements “in the real world” including everywhere you go, everyone you meet and how long you were in contact with each person.

One Nation opposes this measure and calls on Prime Minister Morrison to guarantee that should this app be rolled out it will never be made compulsory and if voluntarily installed by a user, will contain enforceable safety provisions.

Transcript

I just heard something very, very dangerous. Brian Carlton on Triple M, interviewed the Prime Minister. Pretty good interview, until around about the sixth minute to the ninth minute.

Three times, Brian Carlton asked the Prime Minister if he would make the app for tracing people on their phones with regard to the virus, compulsory. Three times, the Prime Minister refused to rule it out.

That’s not on! This is Australia. Secondly, what would be the penalty if someone refused to join the app? Would they be denied certain services? Would they be fined? In Singapore, where they already have the app, it’s voluntary.

Only 20% of people have taken it up. People are well and truly capable of making up their own damn mind about whether or not it’s needed. People are also remindful of Cambridge Analytica, data security and privacy issues.

Each of us should decide who looks over our shoulder into our lives, because as George Washington said, the first president of the United States, “Government is a fearful master and a dangerous servant.”

We have to watch them the whole time. Something about the human condition, give someone power and they want it all. We’re watching. Because this is an opportunity with this COVID virus, to run roughshod over people.

We’re gonna be watching to make sure that we have all of our freedoms and rights restored, once this is over.

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