The man overseeing the introduction of the Government's smartcard has resigned, citing concerns about its implementation, including privacy.
James Kelaher, former head of the smartcard taskforce, yesterday warned that privacy and the confidence of those with a stake in the card - including the public, doctors, pharmacies, states and federal departments - were likely to be compromised by Human Services Minister Joe Hockey's proposed arrangements.
Prime Minister John Howard refused to comment on the resignation, but said there would be appropriate safeguards on the cards - which, when introduced, will replace the Medicare card and be used to collect welfare payments.
Mr Howard said: "I think this will be a real winner with the wider community."
He said young people in particular were saying, "Thank heavens we are going to have something that reduces the enormous number of cards that we have to carry to interact with Government agencies."
"Many of the fears that people have expressed are somewhat dated and misunderstand the character of what we have in mind," Mr Howard said.
Labor spokesman Kelvin Thomson said Mr Kelaher's resignation and the issues he had raised increased Labor's concerns about costs blow-outs and the privacy and security of data.
The Government had a record of IT cost blow-outs. "Smartcard should save taxpayer dollars, not cost taxpayer dollars," Mr Thomson said. "And Australians need to be assured that personal information stored on the smartcard will be accurate, secure and private."
The card, funded by about $1 billion over four years in today's budget, is designed to crack down on welfare fraud.
Mr Kelaher had urged Mr Hockey to set up an advisory board of experts outside government to advise on and monitor issues including privacy and security.
He also said administration of the card should come under a separate authority, rather than under the Human Services Department. But Mr Hockey did not agree to either proposal.
Mr Hockey indicated a separate authority would be against Government policy. He attributed Mr Kelaher's quitting to his not being willing to commit to staying with the project for the full four years of its implementation.