Victorians to get identity cards masked as driving licences

David Heath
Saturday, 05 September 2009 09:33

Opinion and Analysis

Yesterday Tim Pallas, Minister for Roads and Ports in Victoria, announced a new "secure drivers' licence."  The description makes it very clear that this is an identity card in disguise.

In a major media release yesterday the Minister Tim Pallas pointed out that "the use of state-of-the-art facial recognition technology and a new and more secure driver licence card will spearhead a Brumby Labor Government bid to tackle fraud and boost identity security in Victoria." 

Commencing in November, licence renewals will result in the new card, which will be identical in size to the old card.

Tacitly agreeing that a driver's licence is much more than simply a "permission to drive" card, the Minister went on to say that "the primary function of the driver licence is to verify that a person is fit to drive, but it is also used by individuals to prove their identity.

"The Commonwealth Attorney-General estimates that identity fraud could be costing the nation around $4 billion per year."

Security comes to the system in a few ways.  Firstly licences will no longer be created on-the-spot at the nearest VicRoads office; instead the card will be produced at a secure facility and mailed to the licence holder with a week.  The media release noted that "There have been a number of cases of people who have attempted to break into customer service centres to steal licence printers to produce fake licences."

Clearly all VicRoads outlets will be equipped with suitable digital cameras and the means to verify identity prior to dispatch to the production facility.

Secondly, the licences themselves will include a range of enhanced security features – some of which were spoken of (for instance a new transparent strip down the middle of the licence); other techniques were left more covert.

The final aspect of the implementation will be the "big thing."  Read on…