Australia to roll out digital ID with COVID-esque QR codes
The Australian government Tuesday unveiled a QR code system to be used for the country’s digital ID program that will be rolled out this December.
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten announced the Trust Exchange system (TEx) at the Australian National Press Club, where he called TEx an “exciting step forward for Australia’s digital infrastructure.”
Legislation signed into law in May gave the green light to expand the government’s existing digital ID scheme to state and territorial governments and integrate it with the private sector over the next two years. Like the government’s vaccine passport program during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian taxpayers will use the myGov app to scan QR codes that will authenticate their identities.
The government has assured the public that the digital ID program will be voluntary. However, concerns remain that private institutions like banks will demand customers use myGov to access services.
Lawmaker: ‘Every Australian will be controlled’
Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts says “the government knows digital ID will be compulsory by . . . preventing access to government services, banking services, air travel, and major purchases for any Australian who does not have a digital ID.”
Roberts said most of the ten million Australians who already have a digital ID were forced to do so in order to receive welfare. Another two million citizens were compelled to obtain digital IDs to register as company directors.
After the Senate passed two digital ID bills in March, Roberts predicted they will be misused because they were “written to be misused.”
“[Digital ID is] the glue that holds together the digital control agenda by which every Australian will be controlled, corralled, exploited, and then gagged when they speak or act in opposition,” he explained, adding that digital IDs “will in effect create a live data file of your movement, purchases, accounts, and associates . . . as a first step in a wider agenda.”
“Life is about to change for every Australian,” he told the Senate.
The lawmaker expects social media platforms to demand verification from users through digital ID.
Efforts to misuse digital ID already introduced
There have already been efforts to use digital IDs to exert totalitarian government control on taxpayers through social media. In 2021, an Australian parliamentary commission considered making digital ID mandatory to access social media platforms, Channel 9 reported.
“Police would have access to those social media accounts, and it's all part of a crackdown on online abuse,” said Channel 9 reporter Oliver Haig. “Now, users could be liable for defamation suits or even criminal prosecution. And it's all part of plan hoping to deter people from engaging in bad behaviour."
"Now, the recommendations were handed down by a federal Parliamentary enquiry. Their reforms are being considered by the Morrison government, with the chairman saying 'there is merit to remove the veil of being anonymous.’"
