Digital ID gets $288m

The federal government is set to include $288.1 million in funding in the federal budget to boost the adoption of its Digital ID system over the next four years.

The funding is an 11-fold increase compared to the $24.7 million included in the previous budget. The announcement comes two weeks after over one million sign-in and identity details of ClubNSW patrons were exposed following a data breach.

In a statement, finance minister Katy Gallagher said that breach "shows how important it is to help Australians reduce the risk of identity theft."

The government will allocate $23.4 million over two years for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Finance and Services Australia to pilot the use of government digital wallets and verifiable credentials.

The bulk of the Digital ID funding - $155.6 million - will be given to the ATO over two years.

Services Australia will receive $46 million over two years to operate and enhance the identity exchange that enables transactions across the

Digital ID system and undertake the regulatory functions of the system administrator.

Finance will gain $35.2 million over two years to run the scheme. Meanwhile, $11 million over four years will be handed to the Attorney-General’s Department for improving the credential protection register.

Another $7.8 million over two years will be heading for the Treasury to support the data standards function to be established under the forthcoming Digital ID legislation.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will get $5.6 million to provide privacy oversight under the Digital ID legislation.
The government has already spent almost $750 million on the digital identification system and had its Digital ID Bill 2023 pass the senate this year.

- CyberBeat