http://news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050715/wl_nm/security_australia_idcards_dc_1
Australia to consider ID card to fight terrorism
By Michael Perry Thu Jul 14,11:45 PM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia should consider introducing a national
identity card in the wake of the London bombings and the rise in
global terrorism, Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday.
Iraq and
Afghanistan, and has been on medium security alert since Sept. 11,
2001.
Australia's embassy in Jakarta was bombed in 2004 and 88 Australians
were killed in the 2002 Bali bombings but there has never been a
major peacetime attack on home soil.
British police say the London train and bus bombings were the work
of three British Muslims of Pakistani origin and a Jamaican-born
Briton. Howard has said Australia could also be the target
of "homegrown" suicide bombers.
Two Australian men, of Middle East and Asian origin, are to stand
trial on separate charges on planning a terror attack in Sydney and
compiling a "terrorist manual."
Queensland state Labor premier Peter Beattie backed an ID system,
saying Australia may be forced to introduce compulsory ID cards due
to global terrorism. "With what's happening with terrorism in the
world, I think it's very likely," he said.
Beattie said ID cards would also prevent Australians being mistaken
as illegal immigrants and detained or deported. Australia is
investigating 200 cases of wrongful detention.
He said privacy concerns which stymied the Australia Card were no
longer an issue because personal information was now readily
available via credit cards and drivers licenses.
Identity cards are used in about a dozen
European Union countries, although they are not always compulsory.
Britons have not carried ID cards since they were abolished after
World War II.
The British government has said that if ID cards are approved by
parliament, voluntary cards would not be introduced before 2008 at
the earliest and would not be made compulsory before 2013, and only
then if parliament agreed.
Critics of the British ID cards say they are expensive, unnecessary
and intrusive. A British study has said the cost of the ID card
system could soar to 19 billion pounds ($35 billion) -- three times
official estimates.
Britain's opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties say
they will vote against the cards when the issue is debated again.
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