Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I must say the minister’s response on the privacy impact statement was quite disappointing. On the one hand he says that it is redundant; on the other hand he says that there is commercial-in-confidence information in there which we cannot possibly share. Either it is redundant or it is not. If it is redundant, what is the harm in releasing it? If there is commercial-in-confidence information in there, I would submit, with respect, that he could do the same thing he did with the KPMG report: mark certain parts as commercial-in-confidence and release those parts which are not commercial-in-confidence.

We have been going for 45 minutes and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education are here. I would like to ask one last question. I think it was on Friday that Professor Fels issued his report and warned:

To prevent it becoming a de facto ID card, there should be a prohibition on anyone compelling people to produce it.

I wonder whether the minister could indicate whether it is the intention of the government to introduce legislation to prohibit compelling production of the card. As I understand it, the government has indicated that is their position, but it would be helpful if it could be enshrined in law.

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