Here's Why

Access ID card still lives

Centrelink are asking Pensioners to register with their website to claim an increase in the telephone allowance to help with internet service provider fees being paid after 20th March 2008. They do give you the option to send them the answer by post. However if you naturally decide to use the internet to ask for the internet allowance, then you will be asked to validate your identity in exactly the same way as was planned for the Access ID card as outlined on the Attorney-General's website although many of the documents about the Access card Bill have been taken offline. The Office of Access Card is still online and has been updated.

Let's play the Identity Game and see how high a level we can reach.

They want your passport number, your driver's license number, and your medicare number. Then they want you to set up five personal secret questions and answers that will always be true and be known only to you - and Centrelink.

They want your Internet Service Provider's name - presumably to verify that you are a genuine customer? That's a lot of administration.

Even then, all of this only gets you to level 3 of validation of your identity. No identity card here, but they can only raise you to level 4 internet access to your Centrelink services if you validate all of your Identity Documents in person.

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Science, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, research assistant, Cisco CCNA tutor, Physics laboratory demonstrator, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to freelance writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Diffusion radio science show on radio 2SER 107.3FM Monday at 6:30pm in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Diffusion podcasts. You should follow me on twitter, here