6th Dec 2023, 7:24 PM – Senate Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 and another - Third Reading - Pass the bill

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the remaining stages of the bill as amended and so pass the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a third time. This means the bill will now be sent back to the House of Representatives, where our MPs will now decide on whether they agree with the Senate amendments.

Rebellions

There were two rebel voters in this division, with South Australian Senator Alex Antic and Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick voting "No" against the rest of the Liberal Party.

What is the bill's main idea?

According to the bills digest (which is prepared by the non-partisan parliamentary library):

Bills with similar purposes were introduced in 2018 and 2019 but lapsed with the dissolution of the House of Representatives in April 2019 and April 2022, respectively. ... The Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 (IVS Bill), as outlined in the Explanatory Memorandum, would:

• authorise 1:1 matching of identity through the identity verification services, with consent of the relevant individual, by public and private sector entities. This will be enabled by:

• the Document Verification Service which provides 1:1 matching to verify biographic information (such as a name or date of birth), with consent, against government issued identification documents;

• the Face Verification Service which provides 1:1 matching to verify biometric information (in this case a photograph or facial image of an individual), with consent, against a Commonwealth, state or territory issued identification document (for example, passports and driver licences); and

• the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution which enables the FVS to conduct 1:1 matching against State and Territory identification documents such as driver licences.

• authorise 1:many matching services through the Face Identification Service [FIS] only for the purpose of protecting the identity of persons with a legally assumed identity, such as undercover officers and protected witnesses. The protection of legally assumed identities will also be supported by the use of the FVS. All other uses of 1:many matching through the identity verification services will not be authorised, and will therefore be prohibited.

• authorise the responsible Commonwealth department – in this case the Attorney-General’s Department – to develop, operate and maintain the identity verification facilities (the DVS hub, the Face Matching Service Hub and the NDLFRS). These approved identity verification facilities will be used to provide the identity verification services. These facilities will relay electronic communications between persons and bodies for the purposes of requesting and providing identity verification services.