Roger Clarke's 'Australia Card' 12/11/03, 10:06 AM
Roger Clarke's 'Australia Card' 12/11/03, 10:06 AM Just Another Piece of Plastic for your Wallet: The 'Australia Card' Scheme Roger Clarke Principal, Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd , Canberra © Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd , 1987 Published in Prometheus 5,1 (June 1987). Republished in Computers & Society 18,1 (January 1988), together with an important Addendum, published in Computers & Society 18,3 (July 1988) This document is at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/OzCard.html Abstract During 1985-86 the Federal Government developed a proposal for a national identification scheme. Following increasing public concern about the scheme's implications, the Australia Card Bill was defeated in the Senate in November 1986. This paper outlines the proposal, and comments on its technical features, its economics, and its implications. Background During early 1985 the Federal Government embarked upon a campaign to address the problems of widespread tax evasion and tax avoidance. The Draft White Paper on Tax Reform which was released in the lead-up to the ill-fated Tax Summit in July 1985 mentioned, in a few words, the possibility of a 'national identification system'. It appears that a tax lobbyist, Eric Risstrom, President of the Tax Payers' Association, had suggested the idea directly to the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, in March. The idea struck a chord in the upper echelons of a public service beset with the problems of administering large-scale welfare, tax and social control programmes in a country whose law and customs traditionally provide considerable scope to the individual. It was publicly floated by a senior tax official shortly afterwards, and discussed by Caucus in April-May.
[Show full text]