what a card

More than twenty years ago, under a federal Labor Government, this country flirted with a national identity card. The Australia Card. Remember that?  It didn’t happen. Civil libertarians, predictably, went berserk.

For some obscure reason Prime Minister Hawke dumped the plan on the then Health Minister Neil Blewett. And he blew it. They didn’t sell the idea well and it was dropped. Remember this was years and years before 9-11 or the Bali bombings.  I did my bit. I said law-abiding citizens would be happy to have a card of national identification. I mean we carry a driver’s licence with our photo on it in our wallet or back pocket every day. And nobody thinks that’s an invasion of privacy.

I think at the time, here on 3AW, I said bring it on. Sign me up. I’d be happy to be Aussie citizen  000 000 – 1. Why not? In the United States everybody has a Social Security card with a personal number. You cannot get a job without one. I have one from the ten years I worked there back in the 1960s and 1970s. The US government can access that number and know exactly who I am. So what? As I said, if you are a law-abiding citizen paying your taxes what do you have to fear.

The issue of an Australia Card, or the equivalent, is in the news again today because the Howard Government has been flirting with it and a Cabinet meeting discussed it again.

It becomes even more relevant with the weekend terrorism in Bali. Close to the third anniversary of the Bali nightclub bombings which killed more than 200 people – including 88 Australians.

Many countries have identity cards. And only the most blinkered civil libertarians draw analogies with Nazi Germany. You carry a licence. You carry a pension card. You carry a pile of credit cards and a card for your ATM.

What is so sinister in carrying an identity card?  The Federal Government has been talking about tightening up our electoral rolls. Making people prove who they are before they vote. Why not combine it all?  Your Australia Card – whatever they call it – would be the ultimate proof. For all reasons and all seasons.

Frankly, I cannot see what the big deal is. Unless you have something to hide. 

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005