Access card

So the government's plan for a national ID card is coming true.

What am I saying? It's not a national ID card, it's a Access card and it's entirely voluntary. You don't have to have it, unless you need to access medical services, or centrelink and saying otherwise is nothing more than fear mongering and unAustralian.

Joe Hockey, our federal minister for human services, has unvieled his Access card. The card that will drag the medicare card out of the 20th century kicking and screaming into the 21st. What is wrong with the medicare card? Its plastic and only has a name and number on it. Where the Access card is a smart card, with a hidden data chip that will hold a biometric photo, your address, your full name, benefits currently being recieved. As an optional extra you can also include allegeries, emergency contacts, organ donation and your likes/dislikes.

Worried about that sort of information being on a single card? Thieves can get all that information from stealing your wallet. Plus the card will be data encrypted, meaning if someone does steal your card the information is safe. Just like other data encrypted services like pay tv signals, ATM cards and computer firewalls. No one but authorised users, like centrelink will ever be able to read your data.

Hockey also assures us that there will be legislation to stop the card from being used as a ID card. It willbe illegal for banks and pubs to force people to produce the card as ID.

The oppositions's position? Legislation can be changed, particually if a government holds both the House of Reps and the Senate. But surely the Howard government has promised not to do so. And they nver break a promise, unless it's a non-core promise, or circumstances change and there's a bombing in Bali or something. Sometimes they retro-activate laws too, making new laws come into effect years earlier. But they wouldn't do it to the access card, would they?

The opposition also believes that data encryption is not safe and if someone stole your card they could hack into it, change the data, steal your identity or even use it to hack into the government's data base where all information is held.

Oh and they say that while the card is voluntary, you must have one to access services like medicare, centrelink etc. Tax payer funded services, available to all Australians. So, based on the government's stance on university unionism, if I don't access a service I should pay for it. So if I don't get a Access card I won't have to pay my medicare levy? Reduce tax because I can't access centrelink?

Go here for Hockey's views and here for the Opposition views.

The AMA, champions for the Access card and replacing the medicare card in the first place have spoken out over Hockey's unveiled design saying that breaches people privacy. A interesting change of stance from one of the few groups championing the new card. Go here for that.

Flag ban burns pollies

According to Sunrise (yes I catch it some mornings - one of colleagues who I dop off has it on when I have a coffee and smoke with her) and the abc news site, Big Day out organisers are encouraging people to leave their flags at home due to violence last year by flag waving red necks. They sate that their event is a music festivial and not part of any Australia Day activities (which is the next day) so there really isn't a need for people to wave Australian flags.

This has drawn responses from both the Premier Iemma and Opposition Leader Debnam. They deride it as a disgraceful, unrespectful, political correctness at its most extreme. They don't actually say it, but their whole demeanure also says "you draft dodging, long haired, weed smoking, pinko tree hugging, crystal loving hippies who should get a real job."

Debnam even states that if they refuse to embrace the Commonwelath national flag then they should move off State government property. (Though I think that agrument really only holds water if it was the State flag they were "banning")

I agree with the Big Day Out people. It's a music festivial, not a political event. The sort of people to wave flags at these events are usually the sort to cause trouble. If trouble occurs the pollies will blame the Big Day out people for not keeping those sort of people out.

Of course it's all a moot argument. The flag is not banned, merely encouraged to say away.

Best night at work

FIRE!

Yes we had a fire at work last night. Outside, against the side of the stores building, where the oxygen is stored.

Fun and excitment for all. Due to the actions of myself and two other AINs we kept the fire contained until the fire brigade arrived. We kept the oxygen from going up, thus saved thousdands of dollars of work and maybe lives.

Damn it was fun. Though after the fire was out I thought "damn, should of let the place go up."

Hind sight, it's a funny thing.