[LINK] Access card to go ahead despite backlash: Govt

[Bernard]

Access card to go ahead despite backlash: Govt
Jeanne-Vida Douglas
ZDNet Australia
19 September 2007 04:43 PM
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Access-card-to-go-ahead-despite-backlash-Govt/0,130061744,339282005,00.htm

Opposition parties and privacy groups are warning that Australians may 
still be forced to carry the government's controversial Access Card 
should the Liberal Party win upcoming federal election.

Plans to rush the legislation through earlier this year were put on hold 
in August following public scrutiny of a draft proposal on the Access 
Card legislation released in late June. According to Minister for Human 
Services Senator Chris Ellison, over 60 submissions regarding the 
proposed legislation were received by the relevant Senate Committee, 
some of which have been published on the departmental Web site.

Nonetheless, Senator Ellison confirmed the federal government's 
intentions to press ahead with the implementation of its controversial 
Access Card, should it be returned to power in the upcoming election.

"The government remains committed to the Access Card project and I am 
glad to see that the community have availed themselves of this 
opportunity to provide input that serves to strengthen the draft 
legislation," Senator Ellison said.

"Over 60 submissions have been received on the draft Bill from public 
and private organisations as well as individuals. The Access Card will 
affect the lives of more than 16 million Australians and, as I have said 
previously, I am determined that we be responsive to their views and get 
it right."

However, Democrat Senator Natasha Stott Despoja rejects Ellison's 
assertion that the government is serious about responding to the 
public's concerns with a new draft bill. Instead, she suggests the 
government's decision to postpone the legislation until after the 
election was essentially driven by political expediency.

"The submissions may have played a minor role but I suspect that the 
decision to delay the legislation was largely a poll-driven exercise. 
Given the very limited ways in which the revised Bills responded to 
concerns of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional 
Affairs, and the lack of regard which the Bills have to many of the 
concerns expressed by the public, the adverse comments in many of the 
submissions could hardly have been unexpected," Stott Despoja said.

"I suspect the government is [attempting] to avoid further bad publicity 
of this nature by rushing through another controversial project."

For his part, Senator Ellison says he remains committed to the stated 
aims of the proposed legislation, and is not prepared to indicate to 
what extent the public response will be integrated into the legislation 
post-election.

"The Access Card is being introduced to prevent fraud and improve the 
delivery of government health benefits, veterans' and social services," 
Ellison said. "It will streamline and modernise the delivery of health 
and welfare payments, and will significantly reduce fraud. International 
accounting firm KPMG has stated that the introduction of the Access Card 
will save AU$3 billion over 10 years."

However, even these figures are being called into question by Shadow 
Minister for Human Services Tanya Plibersek, who is calling for the 
government to make the KPMG report open to public scrutiny. Reaffirming 
her support for the measures currently in place to prevent welfare 
fraud, she says the government is doing everything it can to minimise 
the Access Card as an election issue as it has became obvious that it is 
not a popular proposal.

"The government has released no evidence that shows fraud against 
Centrelink and Medicare is due to identity fraud," Plibersek said. "The 
government has refused to release information it has on fraud, including 
a report by KPMG, which begs suspicion that a lot of welfare and health 
fraud is not committed through the use of false identities."

Surfing the submissions
Responses to the draft version of the legislation were varied although 
the overwhelming majority of those already published on the Web site 
criticised the Bill in its current form, while others controversially 
called for the functions of the card to be expanded.

The Australian Bankers Association (ABA) is calling for the government 
to remove parts of the legislation which would make it illegal for the 
card to be used as an identifier by non-government parties.

According to the ABA, this restriction is inconsistent with the policy 
background driving the legislation, and is calling for an exemption in 
situations where "there is a legal obligation to verify a customer's 
identity."

Calling the bill contradictory, Senator Stott Despoja suggested that 
this so-called "function creep" will ultimately lead to the card 
becoming the de facto identity card the government has consistently said 
it will not be implementing.

"Our main concerns include the propensity for function creep, that 
despite assurances the card will become an identity card," said Stott 
Despoja. "Submissions criticised the Bills as being highly contradictory 
by, on the one hand, making it an offence to demand that the Access Card 
be used as identification, but on the other hand allowing people to 
produce the card as identification if they choose to, which will 
inevitably lead to the card being used widely for identification purposes."

Also at issue is the lack of clarity in the bill, with organisations 
like the Australian General Practice Network (AGPN) calling for more 
details on what information the card is going to contain, and expresses 
concern that its members will be expected to become Medicare-fraud police.

"Health professionals cannot be expected to refuse health services as a 
consequence of a Medicare Australia rejection relating to Medical 
Benefits Schedule eligibility; this has consequences in terms of 
policing of eligibility, as it is now directly managed at the front desk 
in a practice," Kate Carnell, AGPN Chief Executive Officer stated in a 
letter to the Access Card Senate Committee.

"AGPN has no issues with ensuring that the appropriate use of 
Commonwealth funds are directed to eligible patients, but the fact 
remains that a policing function will occur in the practice as an 
immediate eligibility will now be known."

Not surprisingly, the strongest criticisms of the draft legislation came 
from privacy and consumer advocacy groups such as the Access Card 
Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, and Civil Liberties Australia. Of a key 
concern, according to Nigel Waters, policy coordinator for the 
Australian Privacy Foundation, is that a re-elected government may 
present the poll as a mandate for the legislation in its current state.

"All we can do at this stage is speculate as to what the final bill will 
look like," said Waters. "It's entirely predictable that we will end up 
with an Access Card if the government is re-elected. We hope that if 
they do restart the project after the elections that there will be a 
response to the concerns raised in the submissions, but there's no 
indication at this stage that they listened to past responses, and 
there's no indication that they will this time either."

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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au