Human Services Minister Chris Ellison has delayed sending the first bill to parliament related to the Access Card after an all-party committee raised serious concerns about the card’s introduction.
The committee also chastised Government for the haste with which it has sought to push legislation through the Senate – and for issuing public tender documents for contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars before the proposal had been debated by law-makers.
The report said biometric identifiers on the Access Card risked making the card a de facto national ID scheme. It also questioned privacy provisions, and said the card could make problems of identity theft worse rather than better.
When it became clear the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill would not make it through the Senate in its current form, Senator Ellison – who had hoped to have it passed by the upper house in two weeks – agreed to delay the bill to address the committee’s concerns.
The Committee said it wants all proposed legislation related to the Card contained in a single bill, rather than in two parts as Government had sought.
The first part, which the committee criticised, was to establish a legal framework for the card, while the second was to cover remaining issues – including the hugely contested privacy and security safeguards.
The committee report said the Senate could not be expected to make decision on the first legislative package “on blind faith” without seeing the rest of the legislation.
Senator Ellison has agreed to combine the proposed laws into a single Bill.
“Bringing both tranches of legislation together allows members of the public and other stakeholders to see the full detail of the access card at the same time and help dispel some of the misconceptions about the access card,” Senator Ellison said.
He said he was confident concerns raised by the Senate inquiry could be addressed, and said government remained committed to having the legislation passed through both houses this year.
Labor Human Services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek called the Senate report an embarrassment, with Coalition Senators making multiple recommendations critical of the card.
“Seldom do Coalition Senators make recommendations that are critical of a government program … but the Access Card is so bad that they have swallowed their fears and spoken out,” Ms Plibersek said.
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