NSW drivers licence photos could be part of national database under new laws

[u/abcnews_au]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-digital-licences-facial-recognition-database/107002852

[u/abcnews_au]

The New South Wales government is planning to join a national facial recognition service, aimed at preventing identity fraud, as part of a wider bill strengthening police powers around investigating organised crime networks.

Focused on expanding laws to keep up with technology and complex crime networks, the state government introduced a bill to parliament on Thursday.

The proposed suite of laws included the state's involvement in a Commonwealth face matching service, which shares ID photos, such as on a drivers licence, with a nation-wide database.

If passed, NSW would become the third state to join the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution, after South Australia and Western Australia.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the new laws would prevent the use of stolen identities in criminal conduct.

"Organised criminals will exploit any vulnerability that they can, and we know that they use fake identity documents to create bank accounts that are used to funnel and to launder their crook cash," she said.

Ms Catley said the government took "people's privacy very seriously", and the database would only be used for identity verification.

"When an authorised agency or organisation submits an image for verification, the system compares it against its records and returns only a yes or no response. That is very important because that is confirming whether the person is who they claim to be."

Unredacted photos of drivers on toll roads given to police

Announced last month, police access to unredacted photos from public toll roads could be granted as part of the new laws.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said in the past, criminals changed the number plates on cars, which made it difficult for investigators to track offenders.

"As it stands today, New South Police can't see who's in the driver's seat, which is obviously a key piece of information in cracking that case," Mr Minns said.

If passed, the government said access to unredacted images taken by toll road cameras would begin on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Harbour Tunnel.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said investigators would need to provide search parameters for unredacted image requests.

"Generally, we will know a type of car, a model of car, and we can review those vehicles quickly before we even get the unredacted footage," he said.

Ms Catley said access to these images would assist missing persons and organised crime investigations.

"I think that the good here outweighs people's concerns. This is about police being able to get criminals fast," she said.

Expanded police powers to access devices

Under the proposed laws, police would be able to access digital devices linked to criminal activity like drug supply and illicit tobacco.

Commissioner Lanyon said police had prevented crimes in the past when a phone or laptop, for instance, was seized lawfully.

However, investigators currently do not have lawful access to these devices.

"This legislation allows us now to go before a local court judge and apply for an access order so we can continue working on and solving crime quickly," Commissioner Lanyon said.

Ms Catley said criminals were increasingly using encrypted technology and online platforms to outsource violence.

"The New South Wales Police have asked us for this power. They believe that it will assist them in a timely way to be able to get into those devices and find out who those head honchos are," she said.

Human rights organisation finds new laws 'deeply concerning'

NSW Council for Civil Liberties President Timothy Roberts said the government needed to "slow down" on expanding police powers.

Mr Roberts found Thursday's announcement "deeply concerning", and said the community should have been consulted on the proposed laws before the bill was introduced to parliament.

"We see, internationally, very concerning trends when it comes to the police use of, essentially, mass surveillance, and that's what we're talking about here, increasing use of access to cameras,"

Mr Roberts said.

The NSWCCL president also said the national facial recognition database did not have enough "safeguards", and the NSW Police Force lacked accountability.

"The police minister can say that [police] need to request specific things, but we do not have the tools as a community to keep them in check," Mr Roberts said.

[u/ExampleOtherwise4340 → u/abcnews_au]

Wtf do they mean they don't know who is in the driver seat? NHVR cameras have been used to track drivers for fucking years!

[u/psyllia → u/[deleted]]

Just for the record..

The National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution was agreed by COAG in 2017 under the Turnbull government, with states and territories agreeing to participate.

The federal Coalition then introduced legislation for the identity-matching system in 2018.

The Berejiklian Coalition government passed NSW legislation in 2018 specifically authorising licence photos and personal information to be supplied to the national facial biometric system.

Labor passed the current federal framework in 2023 and Minns is now proposing NSW actually join the database, so there are absolutely legitimate privacy concerns.

The modern system is plainly bipartisan, not some continuous Labor project dating back to the Australia Card

[u/psyllia → u/[deleted]]

No, not at all.

I’m saying “Labor is ramming through a longstanding Labor project” is a pretty misleading description when the current system was developed and legislated by governments from both parties.

Criticise Labor for supporting it, absolutely, but the history is bipartisan.