Malcolm Turnbull calls for driver's licence photos to be added to national database to help fight terrorism
Adding driver's licence photos to a national database would help police identify criminals and terrorists much more quickly, the Federal Government is arguing.
Key points:
- Malcolm Turnbull will ask State and Territory leaders to agree to a national database of driver's licence photos
- He said the database would help to quickly identify criminals and terrorists
- Mr Turnbull played down concerns the database could be hacked, saying cyber-security is a priority
It already has access to passport photos and immigration data but said including the pictures of people from their driver's licences would give them access to a much larger chunk of the population.
State and Territory leaders are set to agree to the idea tomorrow.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan argued it could currently take up to a week to identify people at the moment because the system was not up to date.
"We are doing it in a 1950s way essentially, when we should be doing it in a 21st-century way, so what we have developed is a new system that will allow that to happen instantly," Mr Keenan said.
"It is not giving law enforcement agencies any new powers, but it would make it much faster to identify people suspected of criminal activities."
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was keen to support any measure which enhances public safety.
But she conceded it might mean curtailing some personal freedoms.
"I think all of us have had to accept that our civil liberties from time to time aren't what they used to be in order to protect public safety - so anything that would assist authorities in preventing and identifying suspects would be welcome news for New South Wales," Ms Berejiklian said.
"At the end of the day what matters most is public safety. I think all the community would expect us to have a no regrets policy we don't want to look back tragically and say 'what could we have done to prevent something from happening"'.
"I bear that responsibility very heavily as the Premier. I don't want to have any regrets," she said.
Ms Berejiklian pointed out that the terror treat level is set at probable – "without being alarmist it is not a 'maybe' threat".
Other states and territories have signalled they broadly back the idea.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the facial recognition technology could be used in public spaces like shopping malls as well as airports to help quickly identify people suspected of terrorism.
"It's simply a question of using technology, being proactive, not being complacent, relentless in my determination to keep Australians safe," Mr Turnbull said.
He played down the risk of the data from the system being hacked.
"You can't allow the risk of hacking to prevent you from doing everything you can to keep Australians safe," he said.
"The focus, obviously, is to constantly improve our cyber-security. I've made it a big priority of my government.
"But at the same time, we need to be able to keep Australians safe."
But David Vaile, head of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of New South Wales, highlighted the risk of the database being hacked.
"Biometric identifiers unlike any other identifier can't be revoked," he said.
"You can't say 'I am going to change my face'. So once it is hacked you potentially have a lifelong problem."
Tomorrow's meeting of federal, state and territory leaders will also discuss having uniform laws across Australia to allow terrorism suspects to be held for a fortnight without charge.
Mr Turnbull wants them to agree to make it an offence to possess material that has instructions for carrying out terrorism, as well as a nationally consistent approach to people found guilty of terrorism hoaxes.