State and federal ministers charged with digital transformations efforts have agree to the need for need for legislation to enshrine privacy and consumer protections and governance and oversights into law to support the expansion of digital identity.

The Data and Digital Ministers’ Meeting is a committee adjacent to the National Cabinet and is chaired by Employment minister Stuart Robert, who runs digital service delivery and coordination for the Federal government.

A meeting of ministers on Friday via videoconference continued long-standing work on national digital identity issues including on resilience and included a discussion on the need for improved security certification for data hosting.

A communique said the meeting had welcomed the release of the federal government’s Digital Identity Legislation position paper in June, as part of ongoing collaborative efforts between jurisdictions to reap economic and citizen benefits of a national to digital ID.

“Ministers noted the need for legislation to enshrine into law a range of privacy and consumer protections, governance and oversight arrangements to support the expansion of Digital Identity nationally and to the private sector,” the communique said.

The ministers also acknowledged that the problem of identity crime and data breaches was growing and agreed to work toward a national approach to providing victims with recovery and remediation services.

“Ministers acknowledged governments are held to a high standard when it comes to the security and safety of Australia’s data,” the communique said.

“The public expects data held by governments to be managed with appropriate privacy, sovereignty and security controls. Ministers discussed the need for Australian data to be held in accordance with high standards of security across the board.”

No details were made available on how any of these acknowledgements would be progressed. The following ministers attended the meeting:

• Stuart Robert MP (Commonwealth)
• Victor Dominello (NSW)
• Danny Pearson (Vic)
• Leeanne Enoch (Qld)
• Don Punch (WA)
• David Pisoni (SA)
• Chris Steel (ACT)

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