Australia is advancing with the establishment of a national facial recognition network that will connect the identity documents of millions of citizens, amid persistent concerns regarding privacy protections.
The National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution or NDLFRS [1] aims to integrate biometric information from driver's licenses and passports, enabling both government agencies and private companies to authenticate individual identities. Although the initiative was proposed eight years ago, recent developments have accelerated its implementation. The Digital Transformation Agency has announced that the Department of Home Affairs will oversee the system, while each state and territory will maintain control over its own data.
The agency reported that the project is designed to safeguard Australians against identity theft, manage and prevent crime, enhance road safety, and improve identity verification. It was also mentioned that Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia have submitted data to the National Digital License and Facial Recognition System with additional states and territories expected to contribute. Despite the initiative being labelled as "unendorsed," the government is readying to implement essential elements.
The Attorney-General’s Department also [2] announced plans for the Face Verification Service designed to check if a person's facial image matches the photo in official records, expected to commence in 2025. Western Australia is anticipated to be the first region to share its driver’s license data before the close of this year. When launched, the system will enable the use of facial images from passports and licenses for verification across various contexts. The Digital Transformation Agency has indicated that governance structures, risk management systems, and oversight measures are still under development. Furthermore, it noted that human oversight will remain a part of biometric decision-making and that individuals will still have the option to utilize non-biometric verification methods for the time being.
David Shoebridge, [3] a Greens Senator criticized the rollout, [4] claiming that the government has not implemented stronger privacy laws fit for purpose prior to launching a system that manages “some of the most personal information” possible. In 2024, Shoebridge previoulsy criticized [5] the Australian government’s digital ID, after the Parliamentary inquiry into the scheme released its report [6] on the proposed Bill. The Committee collected numerous submissions from the public and various organizations voicing concerns regarding privacy, the protection of individuals who may not be able to access digital ID, and biases in technology such as facial recognition. “It is clear from the many hundreds of individual submissions that have expressed serious concerns about the privacy implications of a digital ID, that the government has not yet earned this trust. The bill does not create a ‘honeypot’ of new data so it’s unfortunate that the government is insisting on granting law enforcement bodies access to the scheme,” said Shoebridge.
The NDLFRS [7] was established in 2017, when leaders from federal, state, and territory levels [8] agreed to develop a centralized repository of biometric facial images intended for use by law enforcement and various agencies. Federal, state, and territory leaders have reached an agreement to consolidate passport and driver’s license photo data into a unified national database for facial recognition purposes. Malcolm Turnbull [9] who was Prime Minister until 2018 stated following the meeting that the “national facial biometric matching capability” would not be able to access photo ID information that is not presently available. He rejected claims that the capability constituted surveillance or mass surveillance. “What we’ve not been doing is accessing them in a modern, 21st Century way. It shouldn’t take seven days to be able to verify someone’s identity or seek to match the photo of someone who is a person of interest. It should be done seamlessly and in real time,” said Turnbull.
However, Andrew Barr who [10] is the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory caution regarding the potential privacy implications, noting that his agreement to the proposal was conditional. He highlighted the existence of the ACT's own Human Rights Act and raised concerns about the legality of the national database. “Issues of human rights and privacy were at the forefront of the ACT’s consideration of participating in a number of elements of what we have agreed to today. We have sought to highlight the importance of privacy and of civil liberties. Our agreement with the Commonwealth is explicit in terms of how we will participate and explicitly references our Human Rights Act. They’re the controls and protocols that are in place for our participation and the use of any ACT data in this process,” said Barr.