I wasn’t going to contribute, but I heard the minister in her contribution say that this bill is not about a digital identity. The bill is called the Digital ID Bill 2023. Talk about misinformation here! Why is your bill called the Digital ID Bill 2023 if it’s not about providing a digital ID?
Senator Cash interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Senator Cash!
Senator CANAVAN: What is going on here? All Senator Roberts is asking to do is to extend the inquiry into May next year. We’re not really going to get going again until February, after the Christmas break. We’re asking for February, March and April—three months to have an inquiry on a massively significant piece of legislation.
Government senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Senator Canavan, please resume your seat. Once again, senators on my right are being incredibly disorderly. You’re not even in your seats. The interjections are disorderly. Senator Canavan has the right to be heard in silence, and that is what I am requesting.
Senator CANAVAN: The minister is saying that somehow it will be unsafe if we wait another few months while we have an inquiry into a significant piece of legislation. This government has been in power for 18 months. If this was so important, why has it taken them 18 months to bring this legislation forward? If it’s so important, why is all our data already contained and safe, apparently, and no problems?
We know there are already issues with the security of people’s data. We know, from the Medibank fiasco that occurred just recently, that people can’t always trust governments to keep their data safe. That’s why there should be a significant and comprehensive inquiry that gives all Australians the opportunity to have their say.
What the government is trying to do here is to rush this through without proper scrutiny, without Australians being able to understand what the government is doing with their data, with their security and with their privacy. This should go through because it is our job to scrutinise legislation, and there is nothing lost by waiting a few more months to get this right.
The PRESIDENT: The time for debate on this amendment has expired. The question is that the amendment moved by Senator Roberts be agreed to.
