EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by authority of the Minister for Finance

Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Act 2024

Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1)

Subitem 10(1) of Schedule 1 (the Schedule) to the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Act 2024 (the Transitional Act) provides that the Minister may, by legislative instrument, make rules prescribing matters required or permitted by this Schedule, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Schedule.

The purpose of the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1) (the Amendment Rules) is to ensure the Queensland Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (Queensland Department of Customer Services) is taken to be approved to participate as a relying party in the Australian Government Digital Identity System (AGDIS), following a recent machinery of government change in Queensland.  

The Transitional Act does not specify any conditions that need to be met before the power to make the Rules may be exercised.

Details of the Amendment Rules are set out in Attachment A.

The Amendment Rules are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003 (the Legislation Act). Section 17 of the Legislation Act provides that the rule-maker must be satisfied that there has been undertaken any consultation that is appropriate and reasonably practicable before making a legislative instrument.  Following a machinery of Government change in Queensland, the Queensland Department of Customer Service will replace the Department of Transport and Main Roads as a participating relying party within the AGDIS. Accordingly, consultation was not considered necessary or appropriate as the Amendment Regulations would have no disadvantageous effect on the affected entities.

The Amendment Rules commence the day after registration.

A Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights is at Attachment B.

The Amendment Rules are compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.

ATTACHMENT A

Details of the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1)

Section 1  Name

1.                     This section provides that the name of these rules is the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1) (the Amendment Rules).

Section 2  Commencement

1.                     This section provides that the Amendment Rules commence the day after it is registered.

Section 3  Authority

1.                     This section provides that the  Amendment Rules are made under item 10 of Schedule 1 to the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Act 2024 (the Transitional Act).

Section 4  Schedules

1.                     This section provides that each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1 – Amendments

Item 1 – Table 2 of Schedule 1 (item 24, column 1)

1.                     This section omits ‘Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ and substitutes it with ‘Queensland Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business’ in Item 24 of column 1 in Table 2 of Schedule 1 to the Amendment Rules.
2.                     Rule 2.3 of the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Rules 2024 (the Transitional Rules) provides for certain relying parties to be taken to be approved to participate in the Australian Government Digital ID System (AGDIS) immediately after the commencement of the Transitional Act. Relevantly, paragraph 2.3(a) provides for these entities to be specified in column 1 of an item in Table 2 of Schedule 1.
3.                     Currently, item 24 in Table 2 of Schedule 1 specifies the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads as a relying party taken to be approved to participate in the AGDIS. Following a machinery of government change in Queensland, some functions of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads were transferred to the Queensland Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (‘Queensland Department of Customer Services’). As a result, the Queensland Department of Customer Services is now responsible for the services participating in the AGDIS. The Department of Finance has received consent from the Minister administering the Queensland Department of Customer Services for the Queensland Department of Customer Services being subject to the provisions of the Digital ID Act. Accordingly, the purpose and effect of this section is to take the Queensland Department of Customer Services to be approved to participate in the AGDIS, instead of the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
4.                     From the commencement date of this amendment, the Queensland Department of Customer Services is taken to be approved to participate in the AGDIS.

ATTACHMENT B

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1)

The Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Amendment Rules 2025 (No. 1) (the Amendment Rules) are compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

Overview of the Rules

The Amendment Rules amend the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Rules 2024 to enable the Queensland Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business to be taken to be approved to participate in the Australian Government Digital ID System. The amendment is required following a machinery of government change in Queensland.

Human rights implications

The Amendment Rules does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms.

Conclusion on overall compatibility with human rights

The Amendment Rules is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.

Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, Minister for Finance