Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has vigorously defended the
virtues of the federal government's planned smartcard, saying the
project's cost will be controlled and people's privacy will not be
compromised.
"I see some self-appointed experts say $1.1 billion is not
enough money, but the reason we appointed KPMG is because we wanted
to be sure the project had a very focused set of priorities,"
Hockey said today at this year's smartcard summit in Sydney.
"We want to avoid application creep and the numbers are cross
verified by the Department of Finance, Treasury, and my own agency.
We're confident $1.1 billion will be an appropriate sum of money
for this infrastructure."
The new Access Card is set to wipe out some 17 cards and
vouchers inn use for various government services, including the
Medicare card, across the "Human Services family", and, as such,
Hockey said it will be "easier to deal with logistically".
"I will be distributing a trillion dollars over the next 10
years and that provides an opportunity for fraud that is
unacceptable to the government," he said. "KPMG says it will save
$3 billion over 10 years, but I think that's a significant under
estimate."
Hockey also released some details about how the project is
progressing, saying the department is now in a tender process for
"lead advisers and project managers" which will be announced in
July. There is also a worldwide search for a chief technology
architect to do the detailed design of the card's rollout.
B
By August there should be "frenetic" activity to make decisions
about the technology infrastructure, undoubtedly the most
challenging part of the project.
Executive director of the University of NSW's Cyberspace Law and
Policy Centre, David Vaile is one of the most vocal critics of the
government's projections, telling Computerworld the $1 billion,
18-month figures touted by Hockey are "unrealistic" for an IT
project of this scale. Vaile believes the project's cost could blow
out as far as $5 billion.
But Hockey stood his ground and cited process efficiency as
another significant cost saver.
"Every time people front-up to a Centrelink office they spend an
average of between 90 seconds and three minutes proving who they
are before the interaction begins," he said. "This is a cumbersome
way of running Human Services."
While conceding the optimal service delivery model would be
Internet-based, Hockey said as many Australians not Net-connected,
a "mezzanine model" was agreed on to take Australia from a
"technology stone age" to a more modern, simpler form of
interaction.
"This is an opportunity to roll out new infrastructure [and] to
be a platform for new technology to deliver benefits for all
Australians," he said, stressing that care must be taken to avoid
the inconsistent "rail gauge" problem (different measurements in
each state) that plagued Australia.
"We are at pains to emphasize the important thing is that
standards are consistent with the private sector to ensure we can
gain maximum benefit from this technology."
Hockey was pleased to report the states, particularly
Queensland, is working closely with the federal government on
interoperability, and while dealing with the banks in "a number of
ways" the "bureaucratic resistance" has been difficult.
"The contribution of the banks has been extremely disappointing,
so there's a reason for us to set up a payment system in
competition with Eftpos," he said, adding there are compelling
arguments to have banking systems talking to the smartcard.
"If banks can make the technology work for us, we are interested
in any proposals they have," Hockey said. "I assume they are
working on interoperability."
One application of this interoperability Hockey proposed was
enabling the smartcard to be used at Eftpos outlets and automatic
teller machines for people to access welfare payments
instantly.
"When Cyclone [Larry] hit far North Queensland the government was
taking wads of cash into town," he said.
Hockey is also on a mission to debunk the 'shock, horror'
backlash and the numerous privacy concerns that a Human Services
smartcard could harbour, and hence compromise, a person's sensitive
information.
"It's quite a simple card [and] on the face of it the card
contains less information than existing cards," he said. "People
think by introducing a new card we will reduce the privacy of
individuals, [but] it enhances privacy because a magnetic strip is
notoriously unreliable."
Hockey displayed a mock-up of what the smartcard would look
like, containing a person's photo and name on the front, with the
name, signature and card number on the back. The embedded microchip
will contain basic identity information and, according to Hockey,
the only field the government controls is the concession status -
for example, if a person is a pensioner.
"All other mandated fields are in the control of the individual
[and] there will be capacity for voluntary fields like organ donor
status," he said. "I have no desire to control that additional
information."
As with the cost justification, Hockey argues the smartcard will
streamline existing processes in an environment where each year
500,000 Medicare cards go missing, and 600,000 people are turned
away from Centrelink because of lack of identity.
"That's why we need to have photo to ensure the person is in
fact the person," he said.
"Virtually every interaction with government has your signature
but, shock horror, we will have your signature on the smartcard!
This is not an Australia card [and] people will be provided with
technology-neutral protections."
Hockey said it's not rocket science to suggest the Access Card
may represent the most significant reduction in red tape of all
time.
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