Privacy Commissioner comments on Access Card draft Bill

The Privacy Commissioner has suggested in a submission to the Office of the Access Card that a number of amendments be made to the Exposure Draft of the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, including:

  • The guiding policy setting for the register should be to collect
    the minimum amount of personal information and this should be reflected
    in the legislation.
  • While the Draft states that it is not an object of the Bill
    that access cards be used as a ‘national identity card’, it is
    suggested that community trust be further enhanced by recasting this
    provision and including a statement that the objects of the Bill
    include to prohibit the access card being used as a national identity
    card.
  • The legislation should state that the access card number
    (and related identifiers) do not become unique identifiers for each
    individual, which could be used, shared or adopted by Australian
    Government agencies, State and Territory agencies, or the private
    sector.
  • The legislation should prescribe, in detail, a statutory
    process for assessing and approving any future uses of the access card
    and associated systems (such as the register).
 

Your Compliance Support Plan

We understand you need a cost-effective way to keep up to date with regulatory changes. Talk to us about our fixed price plans.