This output identifies people entering Australia and maintains that foundation identity for use in the Australian community.

Description

The department is often the first agency to come into contact with people seeking to come to Australia, either as migrants or visitors. It is important that the department accurately identifies these people and maintains a consolidated identity record which can be used for subsequent interaction within the Australian community and to correctly identify repeat clients.

Work on identity management in the department has been guided by the Identity Management Strategic Plan which was developed in 2007. The plan aims to progressively introduce more robust identity management practices, coupled with the measured deployment of a supporting biometric capability. It involves work on an international, national and whole-of-agency level.

Within the department, the plan seeks to provide better support to decision makers and a sound legislative framework for identity processes. Support provided during 2008–09 included training in identity management practices, extension of the Identity Services Repository, assistance to staff in the investigation of complex identity cases and development of a comprehensive identity resolution capability.

Performance

As demonstrated in Table 41, there has been a marked increase in the number of records captured with a total of 19.9 million consolidated information records stored as at 30 June 2009. The number of identity system users has also increased substantially.

Table 41: Identity—performance information

Key performance indicators	2008–09
Quality: Increased use of biometrics and identity management services
Planned	15% increase in the capture of biometric, biographic and travel records stored in the Identity Services Repository
	30% increase in the number of identity service users
Result	44% increase in the capture of biometric, biographic and travel records stored in the Identity Services Repository
	47% increase in the number of identity service users

Biometrics and identity management

The implementation of biometrics supports a number of international, national and whole-of-government measures, such as the joint Biometrics for Border Control initiatives involving the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

The department has been collecting and storing personal identifiers and developing the capability to use the technology to better identify clients, for example, persons applying for the citizenship test, those in immigration detention and recidivist illegal foreign fishers (on behalf of the Australian Fisheries Management Agency).

A total of 92 220 biometric enrolments of citizenship test applicants were undertaken in 2008–09. The deployment of equipment to capture biometrics to all 13 citizenship test sites at state and territory offices is now complete, with both fixed and mobile solutions in place. There are also mobile solutions in place at 34 Medicare and Centrelink offices in regional Australia. Biometrics were also collected from 1788 people in immigration detention. During the year, 180 illegal foreign fishers were enrolled resulting in 34 matches of recidivist foreign fishers.

One of the key deliverables under the strategic plan is a suite of identity service tools, including the Identity Services Repository. The repository has grown from just over one million facial images and 16.3 million travel document records at the end of June 2008 to 2.2 million facial images and almost 25 million identity documents at the end of June 2009.

International identity management initiatives

Australia continued to be actively involved in international identity management initiatives. The department chaired the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees Technology Working Group which meets twice yearly to consider technology and identity management initiatives occurring in Australasia, Europe, United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). The role of chairing this working group passed to the UK in April 2009.

The department led the Four Country Conference (4CC) Biometrics and Technology Working Group. Under the auspices of the 4CC, the governments of Australia, Canada, the UK and USA signed a joint declaration to pursue biometric data sharing for immigration purposes. Successful trials were conducted during the year which demonstrated the benefits of such collaboration, including:

• greater confidence that fraudulent applicants will be refused through the improved detection of inconsistent identity and immigration claims
• improved public safety by ensuring that persons with known criminal histories (or who pose other risks to the public) are identified in the immigration process
• reduced costs due to the early identification of ineligible immigration applicants.

In one particular case, an individual claiming asylum in the UK as a Somali was found to have previously been fingerprinted on arrival in the USA while travelling on an Australian passport. Australia subsequently confirmed that the individual was an Australian citizen wanted for rape. This resulted in his removal to Australia, where he faced court proceedings and is now serving a jail sentence.

Document examination

Checking clients’ proof-of-identity and travel documents is an important feature of the department’s identity management strategy. The department’s document examiners perform the valuable functions of examining and providing opinions on potentially fraudulent documents as well as building a document examination capability within the department and primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.

During 2008–09, the department’s Global Document Examination Network (GDEN) provided a three day course on document examination skills in Australia to 327 officers from the department and other government agencies. Basic document examination training was also provided to 1016 participants from the department and other agencies.

GDEN provided document examination training in 14 countries overseas. It provided 961 officers from foreign government immigration and border agencies with training in document examination skills and in the use and maintenance of document examination laboratory equipment.

During 2008–09, GDEN was involved in the following initiatives:

• Development of a searchable repository of bulletins and alerts on fraudulent and new series (such as the recently issued N series Australian passport) travel documents detected both onshore and offshore, which is now available on the department’s IMtel system. The repository, called Document Examination Alert Notices, had more than 1600 records at the end of June 2009.
• Enrolment of 20 departmental staff across Australia in the Diploma of Forensic Document Examination at the Canberra Institute of Technology. The department also sponsored the enrolment of six document examiners from Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines.
• Hosting visits to Australia by delegations of immigration officials from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The officials visited the department’s document examination laboratories and external organisations involved in the production of security documents.
• Provision of document examination training to foreign government officers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Document Verification Service

The department participates in the whole-of-government initiative underway to improve identity security and combat crimes related to identity theft. The Document Verification Service (DVS), developed as part of the Australian Government’s National Identity Security Strategy, aims to develop and deliver a consistent approach to identity security across federal, state and territory agencies. It improves the ability of agencies to verify whether documents issued by another agency are likely to be genuine documents according to that agency’s record of the document details.

After a successful pilot, the DVS was implemented on a national basis. During 2007–08, the DVS became operational in the department for the verification of NSW drivers licences and NSW birth certificates. The department also provided verification services for Australian citizenship certificates and electronic and paper based visas for other agencies. To further enhance the integrity of DVS verification, the data from 16 600 citizenship records was purified throughout the year.

During 2008–09, 5365 automatic verification transactions were processed through the DVS internally and externally and a further 1628 manual verifications were managed by the DVS helpdesk.

Reduction of multiple client records

In 2008–09, the department continued to work on reducing the number of duplicate client records by implementing business rules to link multiple records. This was accomplished as part of the Systems for People program.

The Systems for People program has commenced the consolidation of the client-related biographic data from the department’s many systems into a common centralised client data repository, the ‘Party Hub’.

Through this project, a capability to link multiple records identified by decision makers through the Client Search Portal was also introduced.

National identity verification and advice

The National Identity Verification and Advice (NIVA) function is an essential operational component of the department’s identity management strategy. From 14 July 2008, the identity investigation function was devolved to two centres of excellence in New South Wales and Victoria, to better align this function to the service delivery network.

In 2008–09, NIVA resolved 42 cases. At the end of June 2009 the ongoing caseload stood at 67.

Identity Resolution Centre

The Identity Resolution Centre (IRC) strengthened its capacity in 2008–09 to assist departmental staff with identity related issues. The IRC is now positioned to be the central contact point for departmental staff seeking to resolve complex identity issues. The IRC also acts as the primary point of contact for cases referred under any external biometric data sharing arrangements.

The IRC plays an integral role in meeting the departmental responsibility to ‘correctly identify a person’. It provides a holistic identity resolution service through a unique multi-disciplined identity resolution approach, incorporating finger scan expertise, facial image comparison, biographic data analysis and an identity investigative advisory service.

Increasing awareness of identity resolution is pivotal to building the department’s ability to establish and maintain a client’s foundation identity.

To this end, the IRC released an internal e-learning training package in May 2009 and delivered training to all state and territory offices to provide staff with facial image comparison techniques for identifying clients at any stage in their dealings with the department.

Airline Liaison Officer network

Airline Liaison Officers (ALOs) conduct document screening of many Australia-bound passengers at key international gateways. They provide advice to airlines and host governments on passenger documentation issues and, by their visible presence, deter the activities of those involved in people smuggling.

The ALO program is run flexibly, adapting to emerging issues as required. Currently the ALO program has 18 officers placed at 11 overseas airports. Five officers of the Tactical Support Unit provide real time operational support to the overseas officers and airport authorities through passenger assessment and other officers are available to undertake ALO missions at short notice in response to emerging people smuggling trends or as part of crisis response teams.

In 2008–09, the ALO network was involved in 155 interdictions of irregularly documented passengers attempting to travel to Australia, representing an 8 per cent increase from the 143 interdictions in 2007–08.

This is consistent with the number of improperly documented arrivals indicating a slight increase in the caseload in ALO ports. These statistics reflect the ongoing effectiveness of the ALO program in deterring and preventing irregular movement of people to Australia.

In cooperation with ALOs from other countries, Australian ALOs also helped interdict 318 persons from travelling to countries other than Australia in 2008–09.

Figure 22: Airline Liaison Officer network interdictions