Editorial: Big Brother is watching
How times change. Eleven years ago, John Howard and the Liberal Party were
leading big demonstrations against the Hawke Labor government's attempt
to introduce an ID card, called the Australia Card. Howard described the
Hawke government as a “Big Brother” attempting to violate individuals'
right to privacy.
The May 4 Sydney Morning Herald, however, reported that Centrelink
(the renamed Department of Social Security) has released federal government
plans to issue cards with computer chips -- so-called smart cards -- to
7 million pensioners, war veterans, child-care users and social security
recipients later this year.
Centrelink says the card will mainly store information about the holder's
entitlement to welfare payments, concession discounts and rebates, and
is aimed at “cutting welfare costs and catching cheats”. This justification
is similar to the one Hawke used for the Australia Card.
As soon as the smart card is introduced, it is likely that other government
departments and agencies will be lining up to link in their databases --
the Tax Office, Housing Commission, Foreign Affairs, Department of Immigration,
police, courts and Education Department. Debt collection agencies will
undoubtedly clamour also to have access to the information.
With the outsourcing of information technology and data entry, it will
be impossible to prevent a trade in the information on the cards. Furthermore,
given that many people claim social security for short periods of unemployment
or illness, over time, a sizeable number of Australians will end up with
a card.
The issuing of the card only to the poorest of Australians (at least
for the moment) allows the government to imply that the only cheats in
this country are those who “cheat” the welfare system.
Social security minister Judy Moylan makes frequent proud announcements
about the number of people who have been chopped off social security. But
who are these “welfare cheats”? They are the people who have the most marginal
existence -- itinerant workers, the mentally ill, women on the run from
domestic violence, non-English speaking migrants and those easily intimidated
by government bureaucracies.
Even if some of the people thrown off social security are claiming some
benefits outside of the government's guidelines, any “welfare cheating”
pales into insignificance compared to the cheating by the rich and powerful
-- and the government isn't so diligent about catching them.
The MPs who have been caught with their hands in the biscuit barrel
of travel allowances, claiming thousands of dollars they weren't entitled
to, were not thrown off the parliamentary pay roll.
When it was revealed that Patrick Stevedores had stripped $315 million
worth of assets and $60-70 million in cash from its labour hire companies
last September, the federal government, rather than investigate, gave Chris
Corrigan and Patrick its ringing endorsement.
And what about the Liberal Party's Queensland MPs, who have been supplying
the party with government-funded stationery? What penalty will the party
inflict on itself for that theft?
Rather than protecting the public purse, the smart card will be used
as another stick with which to beat and stigmatise the users of any kind
of government welfare.
In 1987, massive protests forced the government to back down on the
Australia Card. In 1998, we need to ensure that Howard doesn't get away
with introducing an ID card of any kind.
Rather than chasing “welfare cheats”, the government should be pursuing
the cheats at the big end of town and using the billions of dollars reclaimed
to fund more and better welfare services for all who need them.
