Australia Card

Last updated

The Australia Card was a proposal for a national identification card for Australian citizens and resident foreigners. The proposal was made in 1985, and abandoned in 1987.

Contents

History

The idea for the card was raised at the national Tax Summit in 1985 convened by the then Federal Labor government led by Bob Hawke. The card was to amalgamate other government identification systems and act against tax avoidance, and health and welfare fraud. The government introduced legislation in the parliament in 1986, but it did not have a majority in the Senate and was repeatedly blocked by the opposition and minor parties. Due to his opposition to the card, ALP senator George Georges resigned from the party to sit as an independent in December 1986. [1] In the House of Representatives, ALP backbencher Lewis Kent said the card was un-Australian and that it would be more appropriate to call it a "Hitlercard or Stalincard". [2]

In response, Hawke asked the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen for a double dissolution, which was granted on 5 June 1987, followed by an election on 11 July. The government was returned, but still without a majority in the Senate. Nevertheless, the legislation was reintroduced, even though it was expected to be blocked in the Senate once more. Under such circumstances, a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives could have taken place. Due to Labor winning a large majority in the House, its numbers in the overall parliament were enough that the bill would have likely passed.

However, a retired public servant, Ewart Smith, noticed a flaw in the drafting of the legislation that nobody on either side had previously noticed. Even if the bill had been passed in the joint sitting, certain regulations necessary for the functioning of the system could be overturned by the Senate alone. Specifically, the bill contained clauses that imposed penalties on businesses that failed to require a person to produce their Australia Card, or authorised the freezing of bank account and social security payments for those who did not produce one. These clauses were deemed to come into effect on "the first relevant day", and that in turn was determined by a regulation made under the Act. However, new regulations can be disallowed [vetoed] by either House (the Senate or House of Representatives) unilaterally, and Senate disallowance cannot be bypassed via a joint sitting. Therefore, even if the bill finally passed, the Coalition could still effectively prevent it from ever being implemented by using its numbers in the Senate to defeat the required regulation. Smith conveyed these details in letters to newspapers; John Stone, recently elected as a National Party senator for Queensland, read the letters and contacted Smith to confirm the details. Stone then told his Opposition colleagues, who were able to embarrass the government on 23 September by asking questions in Parliament that revealed they were not aware of this technicality.

It is not clear that this flaw was fatal to the scheme, [3] but the government did at that point abandon the idea. It may well have been a convenient face-saving way out of the situation, because by that time very significant popular opposition had arisen from widely disparate groups, although the Australia Card had not figured particularly prominently in the election campaign. [4]

Subsequent outcomes

Following the shelving of the Australia Card, the federal government expanded the tax file number scheme to enable cross-referencing benefits received and tax paid by individuals. [5] This unique number is in many ways analogous to the United States social security number.

The Australia Card proposal resurfaces every so often, and the criticism of the Card is sometimes invoked for analogous controversial plans. In the early 2000s, figures within the Liberal Party of Australia – which opposed the card in the 1980s – voiced support for a national identity card. Following the London Bombings of 2005, then-Prime Minister John Howard said the Australia Card would help the government combat terrorism and address flaws in the immigration system. [6] This is despite the fact that Howard was Opposition Leader in 1987 when he had the Australia Card legislation blocked in the Senate which triggered the election that year.

Plans to expand the capabilities of the ubiquitous Medicare card were announced in 2006 by then Human Services Minister Joe Hockey. [7] The proposed Access Card was criticised by some relevant interest groups and political activists as a step in the same direction of an Australia Card. However, the Howard government was unable to implement the scheme before their electoral defeat in 2007.

Technology demands for online identification continue to put pressure on the Federal Government to provide a national identity system. The Financial Systems Inquiry found that there would be significant savings from such a system. [8] However, the Inquiry cited the Australia Card history as continuing to provide a barrier to this development:

"Many Australians may object to this option on the basis of privacy concerns. It could be viewed as a digital version of the unpopular Australia Card initiative, which was rejected in 1987, or the Access Card, which was terminated in 2007."

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian House of Representatives</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Australia

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of Australia</span> Bicameral national legislature of Australia

The Parliament of Australia is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of two elected chambers, in which the members of the Senate represent the states and territories while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the United States Congress. Through both chambers, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Byrne (politician)</span> Australian politician

Anthony Michael Byrne is a former Australian politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party in the Australian House of Representatives, he was one of federal parliament's longest-serving members, having first entered Parliament in November 1999, representing the Division of Holt in Victoria. He was forced to resign as the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security providing oversight of Australia's security services after he made admissions of corruption and branch-stacking at Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and did not re-contest the subsequent 2022 federal election.

Three anti-terrorism bills were enacted in the Australian Parliament in 2004 by the Howard Coalition government with the support of the Labor Opposition. These were the Anti-terrorism Bill 2004, the Anti-terrorism Bill 2004 and the Anti-terrorism Bill 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicare card (Australia)</span>

A Medicare card is a plastic card, the same size as a typical credit card, issued to Australian citizens and permanent residents and their families. The card or the Medicare number is required to be provided to enable the cardholder to receive a rebate of medical expenses under Australia's Medicare system, as well as subsidised medications under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The card is usually green in colour, although interim cards are light blue and cards for Reciprocal Health Care Agreement visitors are light yellow. The cards are issued by a government agency called Services Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steele Hall</span> Australian politician

Raymond Steele Hall is a former Australian politician who served as the 36th Premier of South Australia from 1968 to 1970. He also served in the federal Parliament as a senator for South Australia from 1974 to 1977 and federal member for the Division of Boothby from 1981 to 1996.

A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives and the Senate. A double dissolution is the only circumstance in which the entire Senate can be dissolved.

Steven Fielding is a former Australian senator for the state of Victoria and the former federal parliamentary leader of the Family First Party. He was elected to the upper house at the 2004 federal election on two per cent of the first-preference votes. He failed to gain re-election at the 2010 federal election. His term ended on 30 June 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WorkChoices</span> Australian industrial relations law

WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard government in 2005, being amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, sometimes referred to as the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, that came into effect on 27 March 2006.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) is a joint committee of the Parliament of Australia which oversees Australia's primary agencies of the Australian Intelligence Community: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (DIGO), and the Office of National Assessments (ONA).

Allison Maree Ritchie was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council for Pembroke from 2001 to 2009. Since 2022, Ritchie has served as Deputy Mayor of the City of Clarence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 Australian federal election</span> Australian election

The 1987 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 11 July 1987, following the granting of a double dissolution on 5 June by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Consequently, all 148 seats in the House of Representatives as well as all 76 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, led by John Howard and the National Party of Australia led by Ian Sinclair. This was the first, and to date only, time the Labor Party won a third consecutive election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 Australian federal election</span> Australian federal elections in 1983

The 1983 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election, following a double dissolution. The incumbent Coalition government which had been in power since 1975, led by Malcolm Fraser and Doug Anthony, was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labor Party led by Bob Hawke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1974 Australian federal election</span> Election in Australia

The 1974 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution. The incumbent Labor Party led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam defeated the opposition Liberal–Country coalition led by Billy Snedden. This marked the first time that a Labor leader won two consecutive elections.

David William Simmons, OAM, an Australian former politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1983 to 1996, representing the seat of Calare for the Australian Labor Party. Simmons held several junior Ministerial positions in the Hawke and Keating Governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard government</span> Government of Australia from 1996 to 2007

The Howard government refers to the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard government commenced following victory over the Keating government at the 1996 federal election. It concluded with its defeat at the 2007 federal election by the Australian Labor Party, whose leader Kevin Rudd then formed the first Rudd government. It was the second-longest government under a single prime minister, with the longest having been the second Menzies government (1949–1966).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Ruddock</span> Australian politician

Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire.

Ewart Smith OBE (1920–1991) was an Australian public servant. He was little known to the public during his working life, but in retirement he played a very significant role in the demise of the Australia Card proposal in 1987.

The history of the Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia. Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales and South Australia, 1893 in Queensland, and later in the other colonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">47th Parliament of Australia</span>

The 47th Parliament of Australia is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the Australian federal government, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. The May 2022 federal election gave the Australian Labor Party control of the House; Labor won 77 seats, and gained an additional seat in April 2023 due to its victory in the Aston by-election, giving it a three-seat majority government. Labor leader Anthony Albanese became the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, and was sworn in by the Governor-General David Hurley on 23 May 2022. The 47th Parliament opened in Canberra on 26 July 2022.

References

  1. ↑ Stevenson, Brian (2017). "Georges, George (1920–2002)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Vol. 4. Department of the Senate.
  2. ↑ "Role reversal in Australia Card debate". The Canberra Times. 13 December 1986.
  3. ↑ "University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law: Lessons from the Australia Card -- deux ex machina ?". Archived from the original on 21 January 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
  4. ↑ University of Wollongong - The Australia Card Archived 11 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "30. Identifiers". Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  6. ↑ HOWARD, JOHN. "Australia Considers Identity Card to Combat Terrorism". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  7. ↑ HOCKEY, Joe, MP; HOWARD, John, (former PM); RUDDOCK, Philip, MP (26 April 2006). "Transcript of joint press conference with the Hon Philip Ruddock MP and the Hon Joe Hockey MP: Parliament House, Canberra". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Financial Systems Inquiry". Australian Parliament. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.