Gov to inject $288m into Digital ID

The federal government is set to include $288.1 million in funding in the federal budget to boost the adoption of its Digital ID system over the next four years.

The funding is an 11-fold increase compared to the $24.7 million included in the previous budget.

The announcement comes two weeks after over one million sign-in and identity details of ClubNSW patrons were exposed following a data breach.

In a statement, finance minister Katy Gallagher said that breach "shows how important it is to help Australians reduce the risk of identity theft."

“Accessing services online with a secure Digital ID restricts the oversharing of personal information and means there are less copies of your ID data and documents out in the world," she said.

Now the government will allocate $23.4 million over two years for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Finance and Services Australia to pilot the use of government digital wallets and verifiable credentials.

The lion’s share of the Digital ID funding - $155.6 million - will be given to the ATO over two years.

The funding aims to improve the government’s existing myGovID credential - which has 12 million users - and relationship authorisation manager (RAM) service that allows people to access government services on behalf of a business using a Digital ID.

Services Australia will receive $46 million over two years to operate and enhance the identity exchange that enables transactions across the Digital ID system and undertake the regulatory functions of the system administrator.

Finance will gain $35.2 million over two years to run the scheme. Meanwhile, $11 million over four years will be handed to the Attorney-General’s Department for improving the credential protection register.

Another $7.8 million over two years will be earmarked for the Treasury to support the data standards function to be established under the forthcoming Digital ID legislation.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will get $5.6 million to provide privacy oversight under the Digital ID legislation.

The government has already spent almost $750 million on the digital identification system and had its Digital ID Bill 2023 pass the senate this year.

Although the government has granted Coalition and Greens calls for its Digital ID to be made explicitly voluntary, it hopes to expand the Digital ID to minimise the risk of personal information being stored and managed by third parties.

The legislation includes a two-year period to phase businesses into the Digital ID System.

It will be during this period that the government funds pilots for new Digital ID use cases, including adding government credentials to a user’s digital wallet.

Businesses looking to test use cases will soon be invited to an expression of interest.

“Our investment in improving and expanding a national Digital ID system shows we are committed to making it simpler, safer and more secure for Australians to access services online,” Gallagher added.