Australians to Get Compulsory Photo ID Smartcard

syousef writes "The Sydney morning herald reports that a new national ID card will be issued in Australia."From 2010 people will not be able to receive government health and welfare payments without a card. People may choose to have other information stored on the card, such as health and emergency contact details which, for example, ambulance officers could use.". Your papers please."

Comments

Dumb.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

I'm not particularly opposed to ID cards (They've been compulsory for sometime where I am in Europe - with no loss to my freedom that I can discern). However, statements such as:

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said the Government had considered a national identity card after last year's London bombings but in the end it "was not predisposed to adopt a national ID card".

Are just plain stupid. Perhaps the Prime Minister, John Howard is unaware that the London Bombers were all British citizens and would have been eligible for identity cards had Britain been using them. More likely however he is a typical Western fear mongering politician.

Oh - and the summary headline "Australians to Get Compulsory Photo ID Smartcard" seems to be incorrect. Quoting the linked article:

From 2010 people will not be able to receive government health and welfare payments without a card.

My understanding is that Australia does have a reasonable health & welfare system, so thats a big carrot (stick?) to wave. But it's still not compulsory.

Re:Fritz Lang's M

[Bromskloss]

the famous German film M

The film (original version from 1931) can be downloaded from our friends at archive.org.

So put the lights out...
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder