Prove Your Age

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday January 18, 2006

Dominic Knight

Philip Ruddock is onto something - compulsory ID cards would make it easier to get into bars, writes Dominic Knight.

Last Friday night, some friends and I made the terrible mistake of trying to get into the Off Broadway Hotel under Broadway Shopping Centre, and one of us was refused entry because he didn't have ID.

When we made the fairly sound argument that he was 29, the overzealous bouncer scoffed that on a Friday night, you'd need ID "even if you were 50".

I have a lot of friends who don't drive so this happens constantly. They used to carry RTA proof-of-age cards, but these expired at at 23 or something. The RTA now offers photo ID for anyone, but what are the chances of someone organising themselves to get one when they're too hopeless to jump through the simple hoops of learning to drive?

One of my friends is so hopeless he's even let his passport expire, meaning he's forced to carry his birth certificate stuffed down the bottom of his bag. So when I hear Philip Ruddock campaigning for compulsory ID cards, I can only applaud.

The proposal will doubtlessly have privacy advocates up in arms, but the reality is that 95 per cent of us carry photo driver's licences. And while I'm sure that the government will learn a scary amount of information about us, the horse has well and truly bolted.

If you're going to become paranoid, worry about surveillance cameras or the new world order or something. ID cards are small fry.

They are useful, though, if you find yourself in Baxter detention centre, able to speak only German. Cornelia Rau has been used as a justification for ID cards, and they would certainly help locate missing persons who suffer mental illness.

But what I don't see is how they will help national security.

None of the September 11 bombers was even a US citizen and the London bombers were not previously known to be a threat. Even if they had been on a watchlist, how on earth would ID cards help, unless there's a tiny tracking device in all of them?

So thanks, Attorney-General Ruddock, for a sensible proposal that will make my weekends substantially easier. In fact, I'd like to shout you a drink. But we probably wouldn't get into the Off Broadway.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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