On 30 November 2023, the Digital ID Bill was introduced into Parliament, paving the way for significant security, privacy and productivity benefits.
Digital ID is an important economy-wide initiative that will help people to access online services by enabling them to verify their ID online, using existing government-issued documents.
Digital ID reduces the need for individuals to repeatedly share copies of their personal identity documents with third parties that may be vulnerable to cyber-attack.
It will also help protect against identity crime, which is estimated by the Australian Institute of Criminology to cost over $3 billion every year.
The Bill will legislate a voluntary Accreditation Scheme for Digital ID providers operating across the private and public sectors.
The Bill will also legislate the existing Australian Government Digital ID System to enable expansion of the system to include participation of private sector entities over time. It also supports more privacy and consumer safeguards and establishes the Digital ID Regulator, which will be the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and an expanded role for the Information Commissioner as privacy regulator.
Consultation has been a key feature of the development of the Bill, to ensure it provides the best outcomes for the community and businesses. Several elements of the Bill were amended as a direct result of the recent consultation period and include:
- strengthening the voluntariness of the Australian Government Digital ID System
- improving the safeguards over law enforcement access to personal information held by Digital ID providers
- increasing civil penalties for breaches of the legislation.
You can read more about the Digital ID system at digitalidentity.gov.au
Link to media release: Strengthening Australia's Digital ID System | Finance Minister
