The Australian Government will launch its long-awaited National Driver License Facial Recognition Solution by the end of the year, almost a decade after the system was first proposed.
The Public Prosecution Service has done that quietly revealed it plans to make the NDLFRS “operational” this year, allowing people to use their state or territory driver’s license to biometrically verify their identity through the federal government’s Face Verification Service (FVS).
This integration allows facial images from both passports and driver’s licenses to be used within a single biometric verification system, both as a means of secure access to services and to help the federal government prevent identity fraud.
Western Australia will be the first state to make its licensing data available for verification by government users through the FVS before the end of 2025, with expansion to private organizations expected early next year, AGD confirmed. iTnews.
AGD added that it is currently “working with the remaining jurisdictions to make their data available through the NDLFRS.”
A long road
Moves to establish the NDLFRS began in 2017 when federal, state and territory leaders agreed to create a centralized database of biometric templates based on facial images provided by their respective agencies.
The system is part of the Home Office’s Identity Matching Services (IDMS) and was intended to help agencies, including law enforcement agencies, share and access identity information.
Hosted by Home Affairs, the NDLFRS was developed as a bespoke solution, supported by a commercial facial recognition solution from Cognitec Systems.
Home Affairs appointed for the first time NTT Digital will manage the platform [pdf]before awarding a $37 million contract to Fujitsu in December 2022 for its future operations.
In 2019, Victoria and Tasmania became the first states to submit licensing data and photographs in an early system that would eventually interface with the NDLFRS, with South Australia following shortly after.
However, the rollout was hampered after the coalition government failed to pass the proposal Identity Matching Services Bill 2019.
Four years later, the new Labor government introduced two bills to Parliament: the Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 and the Identity Verification Services Bill (Consequential Amendments). – which represented a scaled-down version of the previous legislation.
Around the same time, the AGD took over from Home Affairs as the lead agency of the NDLFRS, among other identity verification services.
The new legislative framework was supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, although the commissioner warned that stronger enforcement and oversight was needed, including enforcement of privacy breaches by participating agencies under the Privacy Act.
The two bills were subsequently passed by Parliament and came into force in December 2024, providing the legal basis for the NDLFRS and other verification services.
As a result of the new legislation, previous agreements with Victoria, Tasmania and SA “must be renewed to meet the requirements of the law”, the AGD confirmed. iTnews.
“Tasmanian data has since been deleted and Victorian and South Australian data cannot be made available for identity verification until the new agreements are signed by those states in accordance with the law,” an AGD spokesperson added.
Today it is the NDLFRS housed in a data center in Canberra and will be operated by Fujitsu until June 2026, with the total value of the $50 million deal.
“The Australian Government is committed to protecting Australians from identity crime,” the AGD spokesperson said.
“Identity crime is one of the most common crimes in Australia – around one in three Australians will be a victim of identity crime at some point in their lives.
“The department continuously monitors technological changes to ensure that NDLFRS systems remain up to date and fit for purpose.”
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