No Mandatory Digital ID For Australia Needed Despite Push For UK ID By British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
No Mandatory Digital ID For Australia – While UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushes ahead with plans for a mandatory digital identity system for all adults in Britain in the face of growing criticism, Australia’s leading identity experts say such a move isn’t necessary here and likely never will be.
According to Michael Harmer, head of data innovation at GBG, a global identity verification provider that verifies the identity of more than 800 million people each year, the idea of a single national ID number in Australia is “dead in the water”.
Speaking on the InnovationAus Commercial Disco podcast, Harmer said Australia has taken a different and better path by building a decentralised but highly trusted identity verification framework that avoids the risks of a centralised ID.
“The idea that we need a single ID number for every individual is probably dead in the water,” he said. “Australia has moved beyond that – what matters is having high-assurance systems for proving identity, and we have them.”
Harmer pointed to the Document Verification Service (DVS) as a key milestone. This system allows real-time verification of personal identity documents against government records, forming the backbone of a broader digital identity ecosystem now being expanded through the federal Digital ID Act and $A288 million in new funding. Rather than storing personal data centrally, these systems allow for secure, federated identity checks across platforms, backed by government-sourced datasets.
No Mandatory Digital ID For Australia
Harmer said Australia’s approach gives it a global edge in both public trust and innovation.
“Australia stands out globally because of the quality and accessibility of its government-backed data for identity verification,” he explained. “That level of trust and assurance has been foundational to the development of a secure and innovative digital economy.”
According to Harmer, Australia ranks among the most advanced nations when it comes to building secure and scalable digital identity infrastructure and is increasingly focused on analytics that correlate location and behavioural data to flag fraud attempts.
“Context is everything in identity,” he said. “If someone is logging in from a location that doesn’t make sense for them, or suddenly using new verification methods, that raises a red flag. It’s not just about who you are — it’s also about how, where, and when you’re proving it.”
Harmer noted the challenges of extending this model to online age verification, particularly in ways that balance the need to protect minors with the risk of excessive data collection.
“There’s a policy balance to strike to protect vulnerable users without over-collecting data or flagging false positives,” he said.
In the UK, Keir Starmer’s Labour Government argues the proposed digital ID is necessary to control illegal immigration but the policy of maintaining a completely porous sea border by both major political parties suggests the digital ID has a different purpose.
You can learn more about Australia’s Document Verification Service here or find more SEN news here.
“No Mandatory Digital ID For Australia Needed Despite Push For UK ID By British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.”
