Wave goodbye to another set of freedoms with the new Digital Id

Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 15, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) But should we all have a unique identifier, known to the government and cross-referenced to every other activity that we are involved in, who knows what petty bureaucrat will hold my free will in their hands? And what else might the government interfere with?

Voluntary? Not really

In Canada, a country that shares our democratic norms, we saw the Trudeau government bar protestors, and any supporters who donated money to their cause, from using their bank accounts.

Imagine what an interlinking record could allow them to have done.

Is it too far-fetched to think that could happen in Australia?

The government says these concerns are absurd. The digital ID card is "voluntary" and will only link records to the person, not link them together, and records will be encrypted. It also claims that it will protect against cyber-attacks.

The voluntary aspect is laughable.

You may be able to access your Centrelink welfare benefits without it, but you will need to physically go down to the Centrelink office, even if you live in Oodnadatta-a remote outback town in South Australia-and if the office is in Perth, Western Australia.

And if you are a company director, you will need one, full-stop, because of the now-mandatory "director IDs" introduced by the Morrison government in 2021.

If "voluntary" doesn't mean voluntary for all people and all activities, then it doesn't mean voluntary at all.

Believe it or not, the slippery slope is real

So why are we acquiescing to this scheme?

Perhaps it is because we've become too compliant-that the irreverent generation were the original immigrants and their sons and daughters, and now we are onto third, fourth, fifth generations and more, the spirit of adventure that brought people here has dissipated.

Or maybe it's the case that the frog has been swimming in digital waters that have gradually risen in temperature.