How Silly is This? I Thought Both Sides Said This Would Not Happen!

This appeared this morning.

Coalition to revive identity card

Tim Colebatch

August 20, 2010

A COALITION government would revive the controversial Howard-era plan for a national access card to identify every individual receiving government benefits, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has revealed.

On the eve of what Prime Minister Julia Gillard says will be a ''cliffhanger'' federal election, Mr Hockey has told The Age that giving everyone a single identifier for access to health and welfare benefits could lead to ''massive improvements in productivity in health and welfare''.

But instead of everyone having a card, this time the identifier could be in electronic form.

Lots more here:

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-election/coalition-to-revive-identity-card-20100819-12s1l.html

This really is a very bad announcement as it undermines the guarantees we all thought we had about ‘function creep’ being absolutely ruled out!

The possible impact on trust in e-health records and initiatives can only be guessed at.

All I can say is think very carefully as you cast your vote and as Charlie Aitken always says at the end of his newsletters.

Go Australia!

David.