Tim Colebatch reports:
A coalition government would revive the controversial Howard-era plan for a national access card to identify every individual receiving government benefits, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has revealed.
On the eve of what Prime Minister Julia Gillard says will be a ”cliffhanger” federal election, Mr Hockey has told The Age that giving everyone a single identifier for access to health and welfare benefits could lead to ”massive improvements in productivity in health and welfare”.
But instead of everyone having a card, this time the identifier could be in electronic form.
Read more in The Age.
As of 20 minutes ago, Reuters reports that it’s a close election.