The Australian government is set to launch its long-awaited National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution by the end of the year, nearly a decade after the system was first proposed.
The Attorney-General’s Department has quietly revealed it plans to make the NDLFRS “operational” this year, enabling people to use their state or territory driver’s licence to biometrically verify their identity through the federal government’s Face Verification Service (FVS).
This integration will allow facial images from both passports and driver’s licences to be used within a single system for biometric verification, both as a means of secure service access and helping the federal government prevent identity fraud.
Western Australia will be the first state to make its licence data available for verification by government users through the FVS before the end of 2025, with expansion to private organisations expected by early next year, AGD confirmed to iTnews.
AGD added that it is currently “working with remaining jurisdictions to make their data available through the NDLFRS”.
A long road
Moves to create the NDLFRS began in 2017 when federal, state and territory leaders agreed to create a centralised database of biometric templates from facial images provided by their respective agencies.
Forming part of the Department of Home Affairs’ Identity Matching Services (IDMS), the system was intended to assist agencies, including law enforcement, with sharing and accessing identity information.
Hosted by Home Affairs, the NDLFRS was developed as a bespoke solution underpinned by a commercial facial recognition solution from Cognitec Systems.
Home Affairs first appointed NTT Digital to manage the platform [pdf], before awarding a $37-million contract to Fujitsu in December 2022 for its future operation.
In 2019, Victoria and Tasmania became the first states to submit licence details and photographs to an early system that would eventually interface with the NDLFRS, with South Australia following soon after.
However, the rollout was hampered after the Coalition government was unable to pass the Identity-Matching Services Bill 2019.
Four years later, the incoming Labor government introduced two bills to parliament — the Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 and the Identity Verification Services (Consequential Amendments) Bill — which represented a scaled-back version of the earlier legislation.
Around the same time, the AGD took over from Home Affairs as the lead agency of the NDLFRS, alongside other identity verification services.
The new legislative framework was supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, though the Commissioner warned that stronger enforcement and oversight were needed, including making privacy breaches by participating agencies enforceable under the Privacy Act.
The two bills were subsequently passed by parliament and came into effect in December 2024, providing the legislative basis for the NDLFRS and other verification services.
As a result of the new legislation, the earlier agreements with Victoria, Tasmania, and SA are required “to be refreshed to meet the requirements of the Act,” the AGD confirmed to iTnews.
“Tasmanian data has since been removed, and Victorian and South Australian data cannot be made available for identity verification until the new agreements are signed by those states in accordance with the Act,” an AGD spokesperson added.
Today, the NDLFRS is housed in a Canberra data centre and will be managed by Fujitsu until June 2026, with the total value of the agreement reaching $50 million.
“The Australian government is committed to protecting Australians from identity crime,” the AGD spokesperson said.
“Identity crime is one of the most prevalent crimes in Australia – approximately one in three Australians will be a victim of identity crime at some point in their lives.
“The department continually monitors changes in technology to ensure the NDLFRS systems remain up to date and fit for purpose.”
