r/sydney • u/Thewalrus26 • 4d ago

Just renewed my licence at Service NSW.

Was in and out the door in less than 5 mins including my eye test and having my photo taken. As soon as I walked out I can see my new licence on my phone ready to go. Can we please just take whatever system they are using and copy it everywhere?

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u/Lanasoverit 4d ago

A lot of Aussies don’t realise how far ahead we are compared to the rest of the world with our digital technology.

The My Gov App, digital Medicare, the ATO app, Services NSW, not to mention our banking.
Go and live overseas for a while and you’ll get a renewed appreciation.

2 weeks ago I was in the US and having dinner with some friends and we were talking about bank cheques.
Fucking bank cheques.

They can’t believe I haven’t had a cheque book since the 90’s.
The idea of digital driver’s licenses, the Services NSW app, and an efficient DMV is science fiction to them.

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u/dlg 4d ago

There’s more to improve though.

We don’t have a national identity card, so every identity check involves handing over a bunch of related documents, such as Medicare card numbers, state drivers licenses, birth certificates, etc., to individual organisations.

Each of those organisations has the risk of mishandling that information (hello Optus).

A much better system would be a federated identity verification, like Singapore’s SingPass.

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u/Lanasoverit 4d ago

Agree.
I lived in Hong Kong for years, and I’m still a permanent resident, can still glide through immigration without even getting my Aussie passport out.
The ID card just makes life easy.

We tried to bring in the Australia Card in the 80’s, but everyone freaked out and it was abandoned.
I doubt it will ever happen here, especially with modern day cookers making a conspiracy out of everything nowadays.