Access Card No Way - Campaign Site

[jimijams]

Access Card No Way - Campaign Site
http://www.accesscardnoway.net/


Media Releases

Prime Minister

GOVERNMENT TO PROCEED WITH ACCESS CARD



The Australian Government has decided to proceed in principle with a new access card for health and welfare services. The Government is ruling out introducing a compulsory national ID card.

The new access card system will enable people to obtain Government benefits in a straightforward, convenient and reliable way without having to re-register and repeat the same information each time they visit a different Government office. The system will also assist in minimising fraud and misuse of public funds.

The addition of a digital photograph will significantly enhance the identity security elements of the card, protecting the cardholder’s identity and reducing the opportunities for fraud.

The Australian Government needs to be sure that the $92 billion paid each year in health and social service benefits is available to those who are eligible, ensuring that taxpayers’ money goes to the right people and that they get the right payment.

A detailed analysis of the financial benefits of the access card by KPMG indicated that it could generate savings of up to $3 billion over 10 years.

The access card will replace 17 health and social services cards and vouchers across the Human Services portfolio. Once registered, people will only need to show their card when they want to access Government services - they will not have to continue producing multiple identity documents every time they want to obtain a benefit.

The access card will have limited cardholder information on it. The card will have the cardholder’s name, a digital photograph, their signature and card number. A microchip in the card will store a photo, address, date of birth and details of any children or other dependants. The card will also provide cardholders with the option to voluntarily store other information such as emergency contact details, allergies, health alerts, chronic illnesses, immunisation information and organ donor status. Information held on the access card will be subject to strict protections and will only be accessible by authorised people.

The access card will be phased in over a two year registration period beginning in 2008. From early 2010, people will only be able to obtain government health and social service benefits if they have an access card.

The Government will continue to consult with all interested groups to ensure that the implementation of the access card meets the needs and expectations of all Australians, particularly the elderly and ill and those in remote communities.

Further details on the card will be announced at a later date. Funding details for the access card will be outlined in the Budget.

26 April 2006

[father ted]

Yes, it's happening. Today on the news I heard something about a 5 year jail term for fraud or something like that regarding the ID card. Scary:mad: :mad: :mad:
Can you imagine how easily people could fuck with your identity!

[ho1ogram]

Government 'sneaking through ID card'
February 07, 2007

THE Federal Government has used climate change as a diversion to sneak a national ID card into Parliament, claims the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Draft laws setting up the Access Card, which will replace the Medicare card and provide access to up to 16 other government health and welfare services, were introduced into Parliament this morning.
From The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21189014-1702,00.html)

Hey.. Infinite possibility remember? We can stop this. Just let every one know. Remind the dimwits who trust the current government if they trust future governments. And don't forget to remind them that microchips are next. Of course the really important information to get out is that we are a vibrating mass of electron probability...:) then the matrix is seen for what it is. Peace and love everyone. ;)

[father ted]

And didn't they do a good job on that! But they don't fool me. Australians need to take their heads out of their arse and realise they are not so smart and they should pay attention to what's going on.

[ho1ogram]

Here is what I'm doing about it. I sent this letter to four newspapers in the region where I live.

The proposed Access Card is a compulsory ID card and nothing else. It is to be issued for access to government health and welfare services including, among others, Veteran’s Affairs, Centrelink and Medicare providers. In other words, the government is using the step by step approach to eventually making it compulsory for everyone.

Bronwyn Bishop, 7 February ABC News: "Although the legislation says you may not be obliged to carry the card and produce it when asked for it, it's only a line in an act of parliament and a future government of whatever persuasion could change that and make it an identity card".

All of your personal information will be stored on a single database allowing one stop shopping for authorised, and unauthorised, access to your details.

It will contain a biometric photo of you. Once this photo is on a centralised database your face can be scanned in a crowd using biometric scanning technology.

You don’t think the card will eventually hold your tax file number? You don’t think you will be required to carry it with you at all times and face fines or imprisonment for not producing the card when demanded? Here is what Phillip Ruddock had to say on the matter on 7/2/07 in The Australian, "No government can bind its successors, it's never been asserted that you can legislate now and that a new government can't amend it".

The Australian Medical Association, in their submission on the access card draft plan, say that they are concerned about the cards ability to be taken over with ‘function creep’. Ie; it begins with a small amount of info. stored on it and then more is compulsorily added later. The step by step approach to a compulsory ID card.

Part of the government’s sales pitch is that waiting times at your GP and to see a specialist or undergo surgery will be shortened by spending $1.09 BILLION on the introduction of an ID card. Silly me, I thought the reason for long queues was a shortage of doctors, specialists, surgeons and hospital beds.

Not only would identity thieves like all of your information on one database but insurers and employers would love easier access to your medical records. Do you want your employer or insurer to know that you once were a smoker? Or at one time were prescribed sleeping pills? Treated for cancer? Saw a psychiatrist once? Have a heart condition? High blood pressure? Diagnosed with ADHD? Felt depressed?
I don’t remember any party mentioning an ID card or ‘access’ card as part of their election platform.

It is a compulsory ID card and data tracker and nothing else.

It’s time to stop being so naïve and start asking questions about what is going on around us. The current state of the world is built upon lie after lie. There is no time like the present to WAKE UP!



Infinite love holograms! :)

[jimijams]

And don't forget to remind them that microchips are next.
These cards are microchipped already thats scary thing and as Ted mentioned the PRS will be stolen ID's and the obvious solution is to carry them inside our bodys to prevent theft.

I sat next to a guy on the plane the otherday who works in IT communication for ASIO and he was raving to the guy next to him about rfid and how this is the future, soon everything will be chipped and he was setting up the satelite communications for it. He also said the infrastructre he is setting up means that the rfid's will be able to be constantly upgraded as needed using the satelites and also the microwave towers already in place.

I turned around and mentioned that they would like to microchip us too, this made him get uptight and he just made a smartarse remark and returned to his conversation. But it sure did seem to be his intention.

[jimijams]

Here is what I'm doing about it. I sent this letter to four newspapers in the region where I live.

The proposed Access Card is a compulsory ID card and nothing else. It is to be issued for access to government health and welfare services including, among others, Veteran’s Affairs, Centrelink and Medicare providers. In other words, the government is using the step by step approach to eventually making it compulsory for everyone.

Bronwyn Bishop, 7 February ABC News: "Although the legislation says you may not be obliged to carry the card and produce it when asked for it, it's only a line in an act of parliament and a future government of whatever persuasion could change that and make it an identity card".

All of your personal information will be stored on a single database allowing one stop shopping for authorised, and unauthorised, access to your details.

It will contain a biometric photo of you. Once this photo is on a centralised database your face can be scanned in a crowd using biometric scanning technology.

You don’t think the card will eventually hold your tax file number? You don’t think you will be required to carry it with you at all times and face fines or imprisonment for not producing the card when demanded? Here is what Phillip Ruddock had to say on the matter on 7/2/07 in The Australian, "No government can bind its successors, it's never been asserted that you can legislate now and that a new government can't amend it".

The Australian Medical Association, in their submission on the access card draft plan, say that they are concerned about the cards ability to be taken over with ‘function creep’. Ie; it begins with a small amount of info. stored on it and then more is compulsorily added later. The step by step approach to a compulsory ID card.

Part of the government’s sales pitch is that waiting times at your GP and to see a specialist or undergo surgery will be shortened by spending $1.09 BILLION on the introduction of an ID card. Silly me, I thought the reason for long queues was a shortage of doctors, specialists, surgeons and hospital beds.

Not only would identity thieves like all of your information on one database but insurers and employers would love easier access to your medical records. Do you want your employer or insurer to know that you once were a smoker? Or at one time were prescribed sleeping pills? Treated for cancer? Saw a psychiatrist once? Have a heart condition? High blood pressure? Diagnosed with ADHD? Felt depressed?
I don’t remember any party mentioning an ID card or ‘access’ card as part of their election platform.

It is a compulsory ID card and data tracker and nothing else.

It’s time to stop being so naïve and start asking questions about what is going on around us. The current state of the world is built upon lie after lie. There is no time like the present to WAKE UP!



Infinite love holograms! :)
Excellent holograms, get it out there, we need a lot more like you..

Jimi

[ho1ogram]

He also said the infrastructre he is setting up means that the rfid's will be able to be constantly upgraded as needed using the satelites and also the microwave towers already in place.


Very interesting. It is easy to forget all the different ways the technology can be used and abused.

[jimijams]

Your ID? It's on the card

The Government's 'access card' will be an identity card in all but name.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can be pretty sure it is a duck. Parliament can pass a law to say it is not a duck and can even seek to impose penalties for treating it like a duck. The duck, however, remains a duck and the law becomes, well, an ass. Like all such laws, it will be disregarded and eventually repealed.

So it is with ID cards. The Federal Government, by introducing into Parliament the newspeak-inspired Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, has embarked on the first legislative phase of its proposal for a national ID card. The proposal is based on a number of deceptions. The first and greatest of which is that the card, styled an "access card", will not be an identity card. The Government says the card will only be used to enable holders to have access to Government services, hence the benign misnomer. Yet the Government's own propaganda for the card promotes its main virtue as being to enable more rigorous identification of benefit recipients.

This is then said to lead to a host of other positives in combating fraud, identity theft and other crime. Hints have even been dropped of a role in the war on terror. This is part of the Government's standard blancmange of rhetoric supporting its recent encroachments on civil liberties and privacy. However, instead of promoting an open public debate on whether its proposed card will have the promised benefits and whether those benefits will outweigh the disadvantages, the Government in April last year simply announced its intention to introduce the card.

The announcement was supported by a report from accountants KPMG that the Government has used to project billions of dollars of savings for the Government from such a card. However, it has been impossible to scrutinise properly the KPMG report because key parts of it have not been publicly released. Even if the savings projections are accurate, there is still a serious question of whether they justify the non-monetary costs of the card. The Government has shown no interest in a debate of this kind. Instead it released a draft exposure bill shortly before Christmas and called for public comment by January 12. Less than a month later it has introduced legislation into Parliament which takes little or no account of the public submissions on the exposure draft, which many people had sacrificed their summer holidays to make. It is clearly determined to force this legislation through without any proper public debate of the important issues.

A group whose members include the Australian Privacy Foundation and Liberty Victoria, is trying to promote the public debate the Government is seeking to dodge. It has organised public forums in Sydney and Melbourne and will continue to agitate for a proper public debate to bring out the following important issues the Government refuses to face.

First and foremost that this will be an ID card even if the legislation seeks to prohibit its use as such. The very strength of the card will be its enhanced identification integrity. This will inevitably lead to its use as an ID card and to the ultimate repeal of the legislation prohibiting such use.

Secondly, the Government cannot guarantee there will be no "function creep" - that is, the continual addition of functions to change radically the original purpose of an initiative. It cannot do that because it cannot fetter the powers of future parliaments. It can pass an act today that contains provisions imposing penalties for requiring someone to produce the card as identification or that say the card need not be carried at all times. However, it cannot guarantee that a future parliament will not repeal those provisions.

There are numerous examples of function creep through legislative amendment. For example, the Costigan report recommended in the late 1980s that the government impose an obligation to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more to combat organised crime. That modest proposal has, over 20 years of sustained function creep through legislative amendment, transmogrified into the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, whose tentacles reach into almost every area of financial activity. A Government guarantee of no function creep is worthless.

Thirdly, the Government's promise of data protection is no more credible than its guarantee that there will be no function creep. Yes, the Government can create a data protection regime by legislation and other prescription, but cannot ensure compliance. Recent history has shown how ineffectual such regimes are with data misuse scandals in the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink, the NSW Road Traffic Authority and the Victorian Office of Police Integrity. The greater the opportunity for data misuse, the greater the temptation. By creating a national identity register, with links to various other government databases, the proposed ID card will vastly increase such opportunities. Thus the incidence and seriousness of data misuse - and the consequent loss of privacy - will inevitably increase.

Finally, the Government's propaganda almost certainly oversells the benefits of its proposed ID card. For example, it says the single card will replace 17 existing cards. In fact, most people carry only one such card - the Medicare card - and few would carry more than two or three. Why not simply add some of the enhanced identification features of the new card to the existing ones? If the Government is so sure of the billions of dollars in savings from the card, why not release the KPMG report in full and permit independent scrutiny?

One thing is certain, though. The Government will not be dissuaded from its course of introducing the ID card. There is little point in seeking to engage it in debate over the precise form of its legislation. The campaign must look beyond that to ways of frustrating its implementation. That, by the way, is what stymied the last attempt to introduce a national ID card.

Michael Pearce, SC, is vice-president of Liberty Victoria. A public forum on the proposed access card will be held on Thursday, February 22, from 5.30pm at 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/your-id-its-on-the-card/2007/02/13/1171128969818.html

[jimijams]

'ID card' moves closer

The government has rejected Labor moves to make the controversial access card more secure and limit its use.

Legislation setting up the card, which will be needed to access government services like Medicare and Centrelink, passed the lower house today after five Labor amendments were defeated.

Two amendments related to the recommendations made by Professor Allan Fels in a report on the privacy aspects of the card.

Labor pushed to amend the legislation so a digital signature, unique identifier number and photograph were not printed on the face of the card unless the cardholder wanted them there.

Labor's human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said having this information on the card would compromise the security of Australians.

"The more information that is on the card and the more information that is contained on the register, the easier this card is to steal and misuse, the more attractive it is to criminals seeking to do that," Ms Plibersek told parliament today.

"And more importantly, the easier it is for this card to then become, with the strike of a pen, the national ID card that the government keeps saying is not intended."

Ms Plibersek said all this information could be stored on the chip of the card instead of being on the face.

Her fifth amendment was to make it clear the card only had to be carried when access to a government service was needed.

She said the law now simply said the card didn't have to be carried at all times.

This left it open for the card to be demanded in broader circumstances.

Ms Plibersek said government backbencher Gary Hardgrave had enthused about police carrying portable card readers.

Another Liberal, Steve Ciobo, had hit the nail on the head when he'd described it as a "Trojan horse for a national ID card".

Her amendment would make it clear it was not a national ID card.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

AAP

[jimijams]

Queries over ASIO access to data card

A CONTROVERSIAL feature of the planned national data card, the compulsory photograph, is in doubt, with the Government's adviser on the issue suggesting it be optional, and an influential Coalition MP questioning the risks it poses to privacy.

Allan Fels, the chief of the task force appointed to advise on the card's privacy and consumer issues, has backed away from his support for a photograph on all cards. Professor Fels told a Senate committee "a strong argument would have to be made for it to be compulsory".

The chairman of the committee, the Liberal senator Brett Mason, this week pressed police and intelligence chiefs to explain what access they would have to the card system's store of 16.5 million photographs.

Their comments are a fresh blow to the Government, which insists it will not become a national identity card. The first tranche of legislation for the card has passed the House of Representatives, but it is looking vulnerable in the Senate, with all Opposition parties against it and at least one Coalition senator, Barnaby Joyce, signalling he could vote against the bill.

The director-general of ASIO, Paul O'Sullivan, told the committee on Tuesday that ASIO had to have good reasons to demand access but would not need a search warrant to gain information.

Later, Patricia Scott, the head of the Human Services Department, which is responsible for the card, said her department retained the power to refuse ASIO access, which would then oblige it to obtain a search warrant.

But Senator Mason raised the potential for the photo database being used in conjunction with crowd shots scanned by security agencies. "It's a pretty big call that ASIO would have access to a photographic databank of 16 million Australians," he told Ms Scott at a committee hearing.

He said that while police and security agencies were arguing that their access to government information on individuals had not changed, the scope of investigations was significantly expanded by the photographic databank.

"Potentially it has all sorts of ramifications for privacy, particularly with the growth of biometric photographic evidence and potential for crowds to be scanned … everyone knows this is going to happen one day."

Senator Mason also told official witnesses several times that he had so far failed to hear strong evidence as to why a photograph, the cardholder's signature and an identifying number on the surface of the card was necessary.

Official agencies could still have access to a biometric image of the card holder embedded in the card's chip that would show up on official scanning devices to check clients' identity. The Federal Government has declared the data card would not be allowed to develop into a de facto identity card and has included heavy penalties against any non-government entity demanding it for identification purposes.

The committee has heard from several privacy experts that the inclusion of a visible photograph on the card when it was not needed by government agencies underlined fears that the card would ultimately develop into a national identity card.

The committee is scheduled to table its report next week, and it is likely that a majority of its members will suggest the photograph be optional or axed. The legislation is expected to be debated in the Senate this month.

Labor's spokeswoman on the access card, Tanya Plibersek, said she believed making the photograph optional was a "sensible idea". "This is one of the features that makes it like an ID card," Ms Plibersek said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/queries-over-asio-access-to-data-card/2007/03/08/1173166897898.html

[i am all i am]

When I was a teenager during the '80s, a friends mother was working at Westmead Hospital and told us something about the Medicare card that was very interesting. She had been repositioned into data entry. Apparently the information that they were 'punching' into the system via the Medicare card included where you had made electronic purchases and other information that she wasn't willing to go into with us at the time. I don't know whether she had signed a confidetiality statement or what the reason was. We asked what else was going on the card and she said it was basically everything.

The Medicare card came in not long after Australians had said fuck you very much to plans to introduce the National I.D. card. As they already have data bases filled with information on all of us, do you think that they are attempting to bring in the I.D. card now because they can track everyone who has one ?

If you remember, it was the Rhode Scholar graduate, Bob Hawke, that introduced the Medicare card and system.

Something I thought you might like to know.


With LOVE.
_________________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[jimijams]

When I was a teenager during the '80s, a friends mother was working at Westmead Hospital and told us something about the Medicare card that was very interesting. She had been repositioned into data entry. Apparently the information that they were 'punching' into the system via the Medicare card included where you had made electronic purchases and other information that she wasn't willing to go into with us at the time. I don't know whether she had signed a confidetiality statement or what the reason was. We asked what else was going on the card and she said it was basically everything.

The Medicare card came in not long after Australians had said fuck you very much to plans to introduce the National I.D. card. As they already have data bases filled with information on all of us, do you think that they are attempting to bring in the I.D. card now because they can track everyone who has one ?

If you remember, it was the Rhode Scholar graduate, Bob Hawke, that introduced the Medicare card and system.

Something I thought you might like to know.


With LOVE.
_________________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

I didn't know that about the medicare card, I do know though that there is not much they don't know about us especially now with the internet.
On Bob Hawke, here is a photo of him with the latest up and coming Rhode Scholar.;)

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/6619/malandbob1mu2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[ho1ogram]

Good work out there, keep the info. coming. I posted some info. on the smh blog about the id card being a step towards microchipping.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/your_say/010258.html

[jimijams]

Good work out there, keep the info. coming. I posted some info. on the smh blog about the id card being a step towards microchipping.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/your_say/010258.html
Good stuff, are you Patrick? I noticed there was a few mentions on microchips from different people, good to see more people waking up.

[ho1ogram]

Yup, that was my post.

[montag]

Backlash fear sparks ID card rethink

THE Federal Government has swiftly bowed to a Senate committee report critical of the proposed national smart card and agreed to rethink the legislation.

The report, by a Government-chaired committee, criticised legislation for the card, warning the scheme risked becoming a de facto identity card.

Facing the prospect of a fiasco similar to that of the Australia Card, which sank an identity card scheme 20 years ago, the Government moved within two hours of the report's release to quell a backlash against the $1.1 billion plan.

It has promised to combine the legislation, which has passed the House of Representatives, with a second tranche containing privacy and other safeguards.

"Bringing both tranches of legislation together allows … the public and other stakeholders to see the full detail of the access card at the same time and help dispel some of the misconceptions about the access card," the Human Services Minister, Senator Chris Ellison, said.

The bipartisan Senate committee had concluded it was impossible to assess the proposed card system in the absence of safeguards and other measures and called for the legislation to be consolidated into a planned second bill "to allow proper consideration of the access card proposal".

The report also revealed an admission by the Department of Human Services that the $1.1 billion cost of the scheme would rise by $700 million if the cards did not have a visible photograph on the surface. This was because of the need to upgrade 50,000 terminals held by doctors, pharmacists and other service providers so their computers would display the photograph in the card's chip.

Criticising the haste with which the Government approached the laws, the Liberal chairman, Brett Mason, said the committee was "put at a disadvantage" in not having details of the proposed legislation concerning privacy protection and governance.

"The committee is being asked to approve the implementation of the access card on blind faith … This is inimical to good law-making," Senator Mason said.

The Government plans to introduce the card between next year and 2010. Its main purpose is to streamline the payment of health and welfare benefits, and to reduce fraud.

But Senator Mason said the committee was concerned the inclusion of a biometric photograph and a signature on the face of the card "could trigger public concern about the access card becoming the preferred identity document of most Australians".

He also questioned whether access of police and security agencies to the databases would necessarily be compatible with the legislation's stated objectives.

Labor's spokeswoman on the card, Tanya Plibersek, said Coalition senators seldom made numerous criticisms of a government scheme.

"But the access card is so bad that they have swallowed their fears and spoken out," she said.

The Democrats' Natasha Stott Despoja said the committee had found the legislation, the card and its database "fundamentally flawed … This legislation must be junked."

Senator Mason's recommendations were carried without formal dissent from the eight-person committee.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/backlash-fear-sparks-id-card-rethink/2007/03/15/1173722657907.html

[friendsinthesky]

..small article in today's heraldsun, thought they would sneak it in after the article above^^
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Access card to go ahead
March 17, 2007 12:00am

THE Federal Government has vowed to push ahead with its controversial Access Card - complete with a photo of the cardholder - despite fears it will become a national ID card.

An all-party committee has roundly condemned the card, calling for it to be returned to the drawing board.
Labor and the minor parties have gone even further, calling for the card to be scrapped.

But Human Services Minister Chris Ellison said the card would be introduced.


Link; http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21396006-662,00.html?from=public_rss

[jimijams]

Access card legislation could be delayed
June 5, 2007 - 2:09PM

Legislation to introduce a national access card could be delayed until after the upcoming federal election amid fears the photographic smartcard may become a de facto identity card.

Human Services Minister Senator Chris Ellison told the Australian Smart Cards Summit in Sydney more consultation was needed with the states and territories before the government could introduce the access card bill.

The access smartcard is intended to replace the Medicare card and other benefits cards, streamlining access to a wide range of government health and welfare services.

The bill was put on hold after a Senate committee warned the card was likely to become a de facto identity card, and critics have rung alarm bells about the privacy implications.

Senator Ellison said the Australia-wide access card would not be a national identity card such as the unpopular Australia card proposal by Labor in 1986.

People would be able to choose to use it as identification, he said.

"Our legislation will state very clearly that the access card is not to be a national identity card," Senator Ellison said.

"It cannot be demanded as a form of personal identification other than for the purposes of accessing those benefits such as Veterans Affairs, Medicare, Centrelink and the like."

Consultation with the state and territory governments was an important part of process, he said.

"We may or may not see legislation introduced this year," Senator Ellison said.

"The important thing is that we get it right.

"The registration is an aspect that we have to consult on because it's the process that you have to make sure you get right."

He said the government was looking at a two-year period of registration between commencement and implementation.

Senator Ellison said the access card would utilise the latest smart card technology and be part of a secure and robust system.

"It will be much more secure for cardholders in relation to protecting personal information against misuse and abuse and of course the cardholder information will be protected on a secure chip," he said.

Information contained in the chip would be protected by software to make sure specific data items can only be accessed by authorised service providers and people's records would continue to be held separately by Centrelink, Medicare, Veterans Affairs and other agencies, he said.

"There will be no mega database created that will record a customer's dealings with different agencies," he said.

Senator Ellison said the card would include a photograph to help speed up Centrelink payments.

Earlier, an information security organisation executive told the summit Australia was missing out on a "rich vein" of privacy protection by not embracing smartcards.

Stephen Wilson, the deputy chair of Smartcard and Information Security Australia, said privacy and security should not be seen as mutually exclusive concepts with the smartcard.

"The smartcard, unlike any other thing, will allow you to have multiple relationships with multiple providers, and you get to control who knows what about you," he said.

"It defies me why smartcards should remain so controversial."

He said the smartcards would provide a far greater level of protection than the magnetic strip cards still employed by most Australian financial institutions, which can be read with simple equipment costing less than $200.

The Australian Democrats said Senator Ellison's comments showed the federal government was going slow on the card's introduction until after the election.

It is a controversial project and one the government wants to distance itself from during an election year, Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja said .

"The project has been farcical from the very beginning. The original bill was fatally flawed," she said in a statement.

"While not shutting the door on it, this announcement may mean a gentle death for the access card proposal before the election.

"Given the proposal's timing and uncertainty, perhaps the government is admitting it is not quite the right time for access card legislation."

© 2007 AAP