The UK government has abandoned its controversial national digital ID card, with reports that incoming prime minister Andy Burnham is dropping the scheme announced by the previous administration. Savings will be redirected to a tax cut aimed at lowering household electricity bills.
The scheme was proposed by former prime minister Keir Starmer to help combat illegal employment and modernise access to services. TechCrunch reported it was projected to cost £1.8 billion over three years. A parliamentary petition against it drew nearly three million signatures, with critics warning a mandatory card could enable surveillance. The plan echoed a national identity card programme abolished in 2011.
The critical distinction is design. The UK proposed a mandatory, centralised identity card, not featured in Australian or New Zealand ID schemes, which do not involve a national ID card or a central database.
With a user's consent, Australia's system verifies existing identity documents online against the official record already held by government agencies. No new identity is created, and no additional personal information is collected, according to the Department of Finance. The design aims to reduce the repeated sharing of ID documents seen in traditional 100-point checks, and with it the fallout from breaches such as Optus, Medibank and Latitude.
Australia has been here before. A proposed national identity card, the Australia Card, was defeated in 1987 after mass public protest, including a rally of more than 40,000 people in Perth and opinion polls that swung from majority support to majority opposition. The current Digital ID System, underpinned by the Digital ID Act 2024, was deliberately built as decentralised verification rather than a single card or register.
The contrast matters for the surveillance concerns that sank the UK card. A decentralised model that checks documents against records agencies already hold, without a new database, avoids the single point of aggregation privacy advocates fear. That is the feature Australia leans on to build public trust.
The federal government committed A$654.3 million in its 2026-27 budget to scale the Australian Government Digital ID System and the myID platform across more than 255 online services. From 1 December 2026, accredited private providers will be able to join, with charging for business relying parties from 1 January 2027. Individuals will continue to use myID for free.
New Zealand is taking a comparable, framework-based route. Its Digital Identity Services Trust Framework accredits voluntary identity providers rather than issuing a state ID card. A new AML/CFT Identity Verification Code, which commenced on 1 July 2026, recognises accredited providers as a standalone verification pathway, and NEC New Zealand became the first accredited provider.