The Queensland Government have partnered with Unisys to provide Queensland Transport with Australia’s first Biometric Drivers licence.

Currently the Queensland Government provides a laminated licence to the 3 million license holders in Queensland; it looks like this:

Judy Oswin, the Land, Transport and Safety Executive Director of Queensland Transport said that the new licenses would deliver a more secure form of driver license documentation.

“We have used the laminated licence design in Queensland for over 20 years.  The new digital licence will deliver a more secure form of driver licence documentation for Queenslanders as it is harder to forge or alter.  As a result it will help reduce the risk of identity theft to Queensland licence holders and give them greater confidence that their personal licence information is being kept secure.  It will also enable Queensland Transport to deliver services in a more convenient manner as licence holders will be able to use a card reader or the Queensland Transport website to view, update and transact on their licence and registration themselves,”

“Queensland is the Smart State and the move to digital products will set a new national benchmark in biometric and smartcard based driver licences across the country,” Ms Oswin said.

The new system will provide facial image processing technology allowing for extra security.

Unisys have said that they won’t be supplying the digital card itself but supplying the technology behind it.

The “solution” includes approximately 370 purpose-built image capture devices which will incorporate a camera and lights built into each unit, used to capture digital biometric facial images that are subsequently embedded into a computer chip in the smartcard.

Front counter devices, used at most Queensland Transport customer service centres, some Queensland Government Agent Program (QGAP) offices and police stations in rural and remote areas, will have access to these facilities.

Unisys will also be providing the training required for Queensland Transport staff in facial image capture operation.

As Queensland driver licences are valid for up to five years, it’ll take approximately five years for the digital licences to be rolled out to all licence holders.

Allen Koehn, Managing Partner of Unisys Asia Pacific said they were delighted to bring their technology to the Queensland Government.

“We are delighted to assist the Queensland Government to introduce Australia’s first biometric supported driver licence, which will put Queenslanders at the forefront of secure smartcard-based licence registration.”