EFA’s submission to the Department of Human Services in relation to the Exposure Draft of the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007 pointed out problems with the new proposed legislation, including privacy issues and over-reliance on questionable biometric technology for fraud prevention.
Previous activity relating to the access card:
16 Apr 2007: EFA’s submission to the DHS Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce in response to Discussion Paper Number 3 questions the accuracy of facial biometrics DHS intends to use, and points out that mandatory photos on the surface will increase the risk of identity theft, and the risk of honest people being denied medical and pharmaceutical services and accused of identity fraud.
16 Mar 2007: EFA sent a submission to the DHS Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce in response to Discussion Paper Number 2: Voluntary Medical and Emergency Information.
15 Mar 2007: The Senate F&PA Committee issued a critical Report recommending in effect that the first Bill be withdrawn and that the Government re-consider various matters and prepare a consolidated Bill containing both the first and second tranches of proposed legislation.
28 Feb 2007: The first Access Card Bill contains many flaws and loopholes. Further, in the absence of the other two proposed tranches of Access Card legislation, and absence of publicly available detail concerning the architecture and operational aspects of the chip and system, it is impossible to know with any certainty the effect and potential ramifications of numerous provisions of the Bill. No Access Card legislation should be enacted until the government has publicly disclosed all details of the proposed system and the other two tranches of proposed legislation and there has been a significantly more appropriate length of time for public and Parliamentary scrutiny of such proposals than has been the case to date. See EFA’s submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Standing Committee‘s Inquiry into into the Access Card / Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007 and EFA’s Access Card page.
9 Mar 2007: The Australian Democrats have launched an online petition urging the Government to stop the Access Card.