Australian Identity-Matching Services Bill

Jake Goldenfein and Monique Mann, 'Australian Identity-Matching Services Bill' in AI Now, Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Urgent Questions, September 2020

8 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 2020

See all articles by Jake Goldenfein

Jake Goldenfein

Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law

Date Written: September 5, 2020

Abstract

Despite an absence of enforceable protections, human rights arguments contesting government use of facial recognition in Australia have mirrored those in liberal democracies around the world. In 2019, a parliamentary oversight committee required that laws implementing a national facial recognition system be redrafted so it is “built around privacy, transparency and subject to robust safeguards”. These adjustments however, are unlikely to affect the broader shape of the system to be implemented. A closer look at the legislative exercise and the mechanics of the regime exposes more about the political ambitions behind its development than simply a desire to implement a biometric identity matching. In this report we describe the process of building the Australian biometric identification scheme, and suggest that the facial recognition identity matching service is only part of a broader inter-governmental rearrangement intended to concentrate civil and criminal data within the nascent federal Department of Home Affairs.

Keywords: Biometrics, Facial Recognition, Regulation, Identity Data, Data Governance

Suggested Citation

Goldenfein, Jake and Mann, Monique, Australian Identity-Matching Services Bill (September 5, 2020). Jake Goldenfein and Monique Mann, 'Australian Identity-Matching Services Bill' in AI Now, Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Urgent Questions, September 2020 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3687145

Jake Goldenfein (Contact Author)

Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne ( email )

185 Pelham Street
Melbourne, VIC 3010
Australia

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law ( email )

Level 4, C Block Gardens Point
2 George St
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Australia

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