In what The Courier Mail dubbed ‘fingerprinting the poor’, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has proposed a national identity card as the answer to cracking down on welfare fraud.
Hanson wants the Turnbull Government to accept her policy, which she says will stop welfare overpayments and fraud.
The proposed national identity card, unlocked by the owner’s fingerprint, would be voluntary for most Australians but compulsory if that individual receives dole payments, family tax benefit or child care payments.
Senator Hanson questioned why someone needed to show 100 point identification to buy a mobile phone plan but not for welfare receipts:
“There’s a lot of aliases out there and a lot of people are simply using their relatives’ Medicare cards when they come to Australia and that gets billed to the taxpayer,’’ Hanson said.
“It’s common sense. People should need ID if they want to access welfare.”
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull didn’t rule out the proposal but said other measures were being looked at.
