Senator Malcolm Roberts, who was outspoken against the Digital ID Bill rammed through the Senate this week.

THE Federal Government will eventually make digital ID compulsory by preventing any Australian without a digital ID having access to government services, banking services, air travel and major purchases, says One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts.

His warning comes after the Senate narrowly passed Anthony Albanese’s Digital ID Bill, 33 votes for to 26 against. The Bill will now go to the House of Representatives. A mixture of One Nation, Coalition and UAP senators voted no.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic described the Bill as bad. “At some point it is going to be very difficult for people to resist using this to access businesses and services. At the moment the Bill doesn’t require you to have a digital ID but we’ve heard overtures about systems being voluntary before and we know what governments do when they get centralised control of these sorts of systems.”

He urged Australians to speak to their local federal member of parliament about opposing this Bill because “Australia is now another step closer to a dystopian digital future.”

Senator Roberts said the digital ID will, in effect, create a live data file of your movements, purchases, accounts and associates containing reference to every piece of data being held in the private and government sector as a first step in a wider agenda.

“The digital ID will change the lives of every Australian – for the worse. As much as the government attempts to downplay the importance of introducing a single central digital identifier for all Australians, the truth is that this legislation is the most significant I’ve encountered during my time in the Senate.

“It’s the glue that holds together the digital control agenda by which every Australian will be controlled, corralled, exploited and then gagged when they speak or act in opposition.”

Senator Roberts said tech giants have been building huge data files on every Australian for years and those huge data files contain every website you visited, every post you made on their social media, everything that you have ever bought online.

“Keywords scanned from conversations overheard by Siri and Alexa in your home are now unmasked. Until now, that data was anonymised using a unique identifier rather than name and address, which has always been there as well.

“However, tech companies were not allowed to use it or share data with others, that included the person’s name and address. Until Now. Look for the tech giants to ask for your digital ID as a requirement of using their service.”

Senator Roberts said the point of that exercise was to ensure they put the right name on the right data treasure trove. “This is why the Liberal Party have moved amendments to the Digital ID Bill to bring private corporations into this roll out earlier.

“All those treasure troves of data worth billions, trillions, that have been accumulated for years illegally, by retailers, tech and data companies – all that unrealised profit just sitting there has been too much of a temptation for the Liberal Nationals to resist and is now joined with Labor in pushing digital ID. There will be no escape from the digital ID. Australians now have a digital version of ‘papers please’ and Australians will never be the same.”

Coalition senators who opposed the Bill were Wendy Askew (Tasmania), Andrew Bragg (NSW), Alex Antic (SA), Slade Brockman (WA), Ross Cadell (NSW), Matt Canavan (Qld), Michaelia Cash (WA), Claire Chandler (Tas.), Richard Colbeck (Tas.), Perin Davey (NSW), Jonathon Duniam (Tas.), David Fawcett (SA), Jane Hume (Victoria), Kerrynne Liddle (SA), Susan McDonald (Qld), James McGrath (Qld), Andrew McLachlan (SA), Jacinta Nampijimpa-Price (NT), Matt O’Sullivan (WA), Gerard Rennick (Qld), Anne Ruston (SA), Paul Scarr (Qld), Dean Smith (WA).

They were joined in opposition by One Nation senators Roberts (Qld), Pauline Hanson (Qld) and Ralph Babet (UAP, Vic).