Queensland Transport Minister Bart Mellish has today announced an $8 million investment to explore replacement options for the more than 30-year-old Transport Registration and Integrated Licensing System.
Cairns News can advise readers this upgrade coincides with Federal Labor’s move to introduce Digital ID for all government clients, which in effect is at least 90 per cent of the population. Queensland Labor will be devising a method of integrating all state government issued licences including gun licences with the federal roll out of the MyGov ID program.
This upgrade aligns with National Cabinet calling for a federal register of gun owners.
Facial recognition systems will be incorporated by the federal and now state programs which in due course will be used to identify anyone wanting to apply for any state government licence or for patient facial recognition scanning at hospitals.
“The current system is not good enough,”” Mr Mellish claimed.
“I expect more, and I believe the people of Queensland deserve a 21st century solution.
“Reviews have been undertaken into the Camera Detected Offence Program and Emergency Vehicle Priority system issues reported in 2023, which identify a need to update the departments systems.”
The transport department system, first implemented by in 1993, is one of the Department’s core licensing, registration, and administration platforms, through which more than 4 million licences and nearly 6 million registrations are issued each year.
The Minister has called for the ageing systems replacement following multiple system failures, including the incorrect issue of double demerit points through the Camera Detected Offence Program.
It’s understood the system has become complex to maintain and modify and, as a result of the legacy architecture, maintenance and enhancement are both expensive and time consuming.
This has led to an increasing number of technical issues being experienced.
A further issue has recently been identified where a number of Queenslanders were prematurely upgraded from a provisional to open licence despite not being old enough or having served the correct provisional licence period.
Approximately 86 Queensland licence holders have been identified, however the issue appears to stem back to 2013 when minimum age requirements for P1, P2 and open licences were introduced by the Newman Government.
Transport and Main Roads are contacting all impacted Queenslanders and reissuing licences. Those previously impacted, who now qualify for an open licence, will not have to have a new licence issued.
It is the Ministers expectation that any new system adopted will not only be future-proof and incorporate world-leading technology but also ensure value for money for the state of Queensland.
Transport and Main Roads is implementing the recommendations from the reviews progressively, and will ensure there is a renewed focus on system governance.
