NATION Digital ID ‘ nirvana’ near, says minister
DEFENDING champions Nuon continue to lead the 2017 race for solar- powered cars from Darwin to Adelaide.
The Dutch team’s Nuna car has covered more than 1500km to take a near 30km lead over its nearest rival in the 3000km World Solar Challenge.
In second place is the Novum car from the University of Michigan with another team from the Netherlands, Solar Team Twente, in third.
The only Australian car still racing is Western Sydney University in seventh place. AUSTRALIANS will be able to opt into a digital 100- point ID check under a Turnbull Government plan that will allow Medicare cards and driver’s licences to be cleared from wallets.
Digital Transformation Minister Angus Taylor said the Government was working towards the “nirvana” of no longer be forced to use paper to prove who you are.
Mr Taylor will address the Australian Business Software Industry Association in Bris- bane today to explain the Government’s plans to thrust Australia into the digital era.
It has been predicted some Aussies soon will not need to carry a wallet at all – just a smart phone – and opening a bank account or a home loan could be done without any paper identification.
“The next step is the most important – we have fixed the doorway to government, and now it’s time to fix the rest of the house,’’ Mr Taylor will say today.
“Part of our digital identity program, that we call Govpass, will be streamlining the process for attaining a tax file number.
“Through our new beta trial of a streamlined process for data exchange and digital identity we have taken a 30plus day process and reduced it to four minutes.
“This is a huge benefit to the 750,000 people who apply for a tax file number each year.
“It will also take the nine million tax file movements a year, when someone changes jobs, and reduce the lead time from days to minutes.
“What I think is really excit- ing is that Govpass will remove the need for you to keep other forms of proof.
“This program will lead to less annoying passwords to remember and get us closer to the true nirvana of less cards filling your wallet.
“I’m convinced that Govpass – in partnership with the great work being done in Australia Post and by states like NSW moving towards a digital only driver’s licence – will make this a reality in the near future.”
Part of the plan will be to bring other agencies into its federated ID system, meaning Australians could opt- in for a digital driver’s licence, credit cards and Medicare cards.
Earlier this year News Corp revealed the Government was planning to roll out one super ID logon that would allow Australians to interact with Medicare, pay their car registration, help switch banks and buy groceries.
In a bid to stop identity fraud and increase competition, Mr Taylor said it centred on one user name and one password for government and private use. CHRISTIAN Byers has wanted to play legendary Aussie rocker Stevie Wright for more than a decade.
It is a strange declaration considering Byers is only 24.
“I was watching TV with my dad and I remember seeing Stevie on stage, seeing his energy and the way he moved,” Byers said of the first moment he knew of Wright, who died in 2015 at the age of 68.
“Since then I’ve actually wanted to play him. So that has been since I was about 14. It was quite something for me.”
That was 2007 and Wright was on Byers’ television for The Long Way To The Top television series.
Fast forward to 2017 and Byers is gearing up for the premiere of his lead role as Wright in the ABC’s much hyped two- part telemovie based on The Easybeats, Friday On My Mind. The series will debut over the coming months and stars Byers alongside Du Toite Bredenkamp as Dick Diamonde, Will Rush as George Young, Mackenzie Fearnley as Harry Vanda and Arthur McBain as Snowy Fleet.
“It is completely chaotic,” Byers says, having seen some of the telemovie. “And that is completely appropriate given who they were as a band and just the insanity of that particular time in what was really a cultural revolution.”