The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Identity Minister Meg Hillier has dismissed the
controversy, arguing that individual police forces can decide when they
want to invest in card readers.
She told Silicon.com that
"There's no prospect in the immediate future for the government
directing anybody that you have to buy those things [readers] because
we would be placing a burden on these organisations."
Meanwhile, the official Government Home Office ID Card information site
continues to shout about how the cards "will be linked to their owners
by unique biometric information" and how this is essential "to ensure
that your card is really yours, and to protect you from identity theft."
The whole thing gets even more farcical though, with that same Identity
Minister also going on record to claim that it is up to the
manufacturers of card readers to "decide whether it is worth their
while to produce them."
Maybe we can apply this logic to the cards themselves, with individual
citizens deicing when or if it is worthwhile carrying them.
According to campaign group NO2ID
even some local councils are rebelling against ID Cards. One, in
Reading, has said it opposes the introduction of the cards, does not
believe they will be effective against terrorism and thought the cost
is an "unjustifiable waste of money."
David Bass
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