Costello backs ID card Samantha Maiden
MARCH 30, 2006
PETER Costello has backed the introduction of a national ID card for health and welfare transactions but has called for greater protection from media intrusion.
Warning the age of the internet posed a new threat to the privacy of individuals, the Treasurer last night backed debate on new protections.
But he said the time had also come for a "smart card" to track all transactions with Medicare and welfare payments, a proposal he conceded would contain more information that the original Australia Card proposal in the 1980s. "Personally I think there are enormous benefits in a smart card," he said.
Speaking last night at the launch of Privacy without Principle, a book written by Liberal senator Brett Mason, Mr Costello also said he believed there should be a limit to what could be "broadcast to the world".
He later added that he was referring to protection for "public figures".
