Chair of the Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, Professor Allan Fels AO, has released the first discussion paper developed by the Taskforce on the health and social services access card.

The Discussion Paper outlines the Government’s proposal for the new access card and discusses some of the issues that require public consideration and debate.

The Taskforce has been established by the Government to provide independent advice directly to the Minister for Human Services about how consumers will use the card and the subsequent privacy considerations. It expects to release further Discussion Papers during the current consultation
period.

Professor Fels said the Taskforce had identified key questions which need to be immediately addressed:

• how any new card can be prevented from evolving into a national identity card
• the administrative or legislative basis upon which the new card should be established
• the impact on personal privacy of introducing an access card
• the consumer benefits or otherwise of having an access card

Submissions on this Discussion Paper can be made up to 27 July.

PS I have set up a new Access Card category (see right hand column) so that you can see all posts on the one page.