Senate Committee appearance

[4 Mar 07] Lockstep appeared before the Senate Committee on the Access Card bill.

On March 2, Stephen appeared before the Senate Finance and Public Affairs Committee reviewing the Access Card legislation.

The Hansard record of Stephen's testimony is at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S10026.pdf.

Shortly afterwards, Lockstep issued a press release, below.

Extract

"Scrapping the voluntary area would leave the smartcard with just one master ID number [as specified in the draft legislation] and that would make it an Australia Card".
"Scrapping the voluntary area is a blunt and cynical response to the problem of function creep. It would shut the door on a rich and untapped vein of privacy enhancements. To prevent function creep, let’s have an ombudsman. We shouldn’t just cripple the smartcard." "Frankly it bamboozles me that such a narrow view of smartcards dominates in Australia."

	Lockstep FPA Senate Committee Access Card Bill 070228a	[download, 86Kb]
A huge opportunity to fully utilise this most important infrastructure investment might be lost if the Access Card Bill prematurely freezes the design of the chip, cementing possible privacy compromises, or inhibiting future safety improvements.
	Lockstep Press Release 070303 Voluntary Space in the Access Card	[download, 43Kb]
"Scrapping the voluntary area of the Access Card is blunt and cynical"