The Department of Home Affairs is to conduct a review of the arrangements for the protection and management of people’s identity information in Australia.
Announced by the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, the review will look at ways to strengthen ID protection to make it harder for identities to be stolen.
It will be led by former Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, Roger Wilkins (pictured) and will focus on arrangements for issuing, using and managing an individual’s documents, credentials and related identity information which is relied upon as evidence of a person’s identity by government and key sectors of the economy.
Mr Dutton said the protection of identity information was of concern for many people in in the community as identity crime had become one of the most common crimes in the country.
“The effective management and sharing of identity information is critical to maintaining public trust in the delivery of Government services,” Mr Dutton said.
“Citizens want to know that their privacy is maintained and the services being provided are tailored to their needs and easy to use.”
He said the review had been commissioned to determine ways to enhance or strengthen arrangements that supported and governed the protection and management of identity information.
Its aims were to protect the public from the theft or misuse of their identity information; to minimise the impacts of identity crime for victims, and to provide better targeted Government services to individuals and business.
“Mr Wilkins will be supported by Professor David Lacey, founder and Managing Director of IDCARE, the not-for-profit support service for victims of identity crime,” Mr Dutton said.
“This review will assess current identity management arrangements and include consultations with the States and Territories, the private sector, and interested civil society organisations.”
The Terms of Reference for the review can be accessed at this PS News link and public submissions will be received until 26 October. The review is to report by the end of November.
