The government may have to amend its digital ID legislation to guarantee it is voluntary, if it hopes for a smooth passage for the bill.
A Senate Standing Committee on Economics report [pdf] into the Digital ID Bill recommends that the bill be passed, but dissent by Liberal, LNP, and Greens senators means some negotiation will be needed to see the bill become law.
The strongest agreement between the three groups is that any digital ID scheme should be voluntary, and this should be guaranteed in the legislation.
If people don’t believe the scheme is voluntary, the Liberal senators wrote, “then it will not be successful”.
Queensland LNP senators agreed, writing that the bill “provides no protection against the creeping expansion of Digital ID requirements”.
“Genuine voluntariness of the scheme is also a core issue identified by many of the institutional stakeholders and also the hundreds of private submissions,” the Greens committee member (first senator Nick McKim, substituted by David Shoebridge late in the inquiry) wrote.
“For the scheme to work it needs to have a strong social licence and for this to occur this fundamental issue of accessible alternatives must be addressed.”
Privacy review
The long-running Privacy Act review could pose a second roadblock, with Coalition and LNP senators urging the government to complete that process before enacting the Digital ID Bill.
The Privacy Act review has been in train since October 2020.
The review offered a discussion paper in October 2021, and a report for public consultation in February 2023. In September 2023, the government accepted just 38 of the 116 February recommendations.
“It is possible that if this bill proceeds before the reforms to the Privacy Act are complete, there could be competing or contradictory requirements to the ones set down in the Digital ID bill,” the Coalition dissenting report stated.
They recommend “that the bill only be considered once the reforms of the Privacy Act are introduced to the Parliament, to ensure that privacy, data protections and compliance requirements are consistent and coordinated across various related legislation.”
The LNP senators agreed, but the Greens are not so sure.
While agreeing that “the Privacy Act overhaul should have been completed” before the Digital ID Bill was brought forward, the Greens report said the glacial progress of the review “is the best argument for proceeding with this bill now, noting as well that it contains significantly improved privacy protections from those that are currently available”.