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*Please note, this campaign is no longer active and was archived December 2007*
STOP THE ACCESS CARD NOW!
Australia’s Federal Government is trying to bring in an Access Card for every man, woman and child in Australia. While the card itself will not be available automatically to anyone under 18, young persons' details will be recorded on their parent’s card and as such the system will catch everyone.
The Access Card – an ID card in disguise - is significantly different from what we have now and is much more intrusive even than the Australia Card proposed in 1986 and voted down by the Democrats and Liberal parties.
It will create a single key through which both government and business can confidently index, link, track and profile our movements, transactions and personal affairs, combining records in large scale and routine ways. The central register will be a massive database with potentially no limits on who will have access to it.
The Government has released a second Exposure draft of the legislation: The Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2007.
Despite the reworked legislation the Australian Democrats still hold serious concerns about the privacy and security implications of the proposed access card.
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| Our list of top 10 concerns include: |
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1. |
The digital photograph and electronic signature on the surface of the card. |
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2. |
If you don’t become "access card compliant", some payments will be withheld. |
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3. |
No requirement to protect the microchip with the highest level of encryption. |
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4. |
No privacy or security breach notification requirement. |
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5. |
Police and ASIO will be able to gather information without a warrant. |
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6. |
Uncertainty around the re-issuing and decommissioning of lost or stolen cards and how much quality health information will be on the card. |
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7. |
Which organisations will be given or have to purchase card readers to access information. |
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8. |
The private sector, namely banks, possibly owning the network which means they can dictate fees because chips will be able to read by ATM/EFTPOS terminals to administer payments in emergency situations. |
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9. |
An ability for the government to assign you a name that you might not commonly use. |
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10. |
Massive exemptions from the registration process which undermine previous comments that for accuracy purposes only fresh data would be used. | |
Submissions can be made to the Office of Access Card up until 21 August 2007. Details on how to make a submission are available at www.accesscard.gov.au.
Freedom of Information request
Senator Stott Despoja has made a Freedom of Information Act request for access to the KPMG Report which relates to castings for the proposed Access Card.
The Senator's progress with her request is being publicly tracked in the following table.
Timeline of FOI request
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Date |
Action |
Summary |
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16 May 2007 |
FOI request sent to the Department of Human Services |
“Please provide me with the deleted excerpts from the February 2006 KPMG report prepared for the Health and Social Services Smart Card Initiative Volume 1: Business Case Public Extract” |
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31 May 2007 |
FOI acknowledgment Letter |
Acknowledges receipt of FOI request |
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19 June 2007 |
Estimate of Charge for Access to KPMG report received by facsimile |
Search, retrieval, tagging and scheduling 1 hour @ $15ph = $15.25 |
| Decision making and consultation, 41 hours @20 ph = $836.28 |
| Postage and photocopying = $15.70 |
| Total = $867.23 |
| Request taken to be withdrawn if failure to notify the Department of out position by 16 July 2007 |
| 29 June 2007 |
Request made Department to waive fee |
Request pursuant to s29 of the FOI Act that fee be waived on grounds that the granting of access to documents was in the public interest |
| 1 August 2007 |
Response received from Department |
Department refuses to waive fee but agrees to reduce overall fee by 10% ‘in acknowledgement of the public interest considerations favouring disclosure of the document’. Department reviews charges, resulting in reduction of fees by $112.13. Breakdown of fee: |
| Search, retrieval, tagging and scheduling 1 hour @ $15ph = $15.25 |
| Decision making and consultation, 36 hours @20 ph = $727.07 |
| Postage and photocopying = $12.80 |
| Total = $755.12 |
| Less 10% reduction = $679.61 |
| 31 August 2007 |
Application for internal review of decision lodged with Department |
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Sign the petition
Sign our online petition urging the Government to stop the Access Card.
Sign the petition online
Download a printable petition [pdf]
Have your say
Senator Natasha Stott Despoja is currently conducting a community survey on the Access Card and would like to hear your views. Completion of the 12 questions should take just a minute or two, and at the end of the survey you will have the opportunity to add comments.
Complete the survey
Contact your federal MP
Don’t delay, use the link below to obtain the contact details of your federal member and phone or email them to urge them to stop the Access Card.
List of Senators
List of MPs
Read our flyer suggesting questions to ask your federal MP.
Download our flyer [pdf]
Democrats action in the media and Senate
PRESS RELEASE: Access Card dangers - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 25 June 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Govt backdown on access card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 6 June 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Slow death for Access Card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 5 June 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access Car: Reborn - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 16 May 2007
PRESS RELEASE: One year on, still little progress on access card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 27 April 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access Card: ID Card fears confirmed - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 18 April 2007
SPEECH: Appropriation Bill, Second Reading - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 29 March 2007
VIDEO (YouTube): A national ID system too risky - Senator Lyn Allison, 27 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: House of 'smartcards' crashing down - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 15 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Children of gay parents, transgender community marginalised: Access Card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 13 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access to Access Card for law enforcement - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 6 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: New Minister must scrap Access Card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 5 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access Card: Minimal privacy protections - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 2 March 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Early win on Access Card? - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 1 March 2007
QUESTIONS: Smartcard - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 28 February 2007
QUESTIONS - TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS: Smartcard - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 26 February 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access Card move no concession at all - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 27 February 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Access Card questions rattle Govt - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 26 February 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Privacy invasion (Access) card - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 22 February 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Move to refer Access Card to Senate Committee - Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, 7 February 2007
Poster
Download and display in your workplace, sports and community groups or on your fridge at home our poster urging the Government to Stop the Access Card.
Download our poster [pdf]
Tell a friend
Tell a friend about this campaign
Forward this page to your social networks and make your friends voices count too.
Other Links
Access Card No Way
www.accesscardnoway.net
Australian Privacy Foundation
www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/
Electronic Frontiers Australia
www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/accesscard.html
The Age Blog Frustrating ID Cards
blogs.theage.com.au/
Submissions to the Office of the Access Card
www.accesscard.gov.au/submissions_exposure_draft.html
Comparison between Australia Card and Access Card
www2.austlii.edu.au/~graham/publications/2006/ID_Card/ | 
