Labor has decided to rush one of its most hazardous policies through right on Christmas hoping this would strip the Opposition, One Nation, and the crossbench of their ability to properly vet and reject it.

There’s no better demonstration of Labor’s lack of respect for democracy or the people of this nation.

This isn’t about proper process, debate, and creating good laws.

It’s about pushing unpopular and extremely harmful policy through all at once – flooding the Chamber and drowning out opposing commentary.

Politicians use these tricks when they know there’s something wrong with their proposal but ideology demands the bill passes anyway. It’s the magician’s sleight of hand, switching the card from side-to-side so no one can get a good look.

In this spirit of underhanded and dodgy politics, the Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher announced on Twitter the sudden arrival of the most hated and serious Bill – perhaps ever – presented to Parliament. The Digital ID Bill.

‘Digital ID is not compulsory,’ said Ms Gallagher, all too casually.

‘It’s a voluntary, secure, and convenient way for you to access online services safely without having your personal documents in the possession of third-party ‘data harvesters’. I’m proud to have introduced our Digital ID Bill this week – this technology will transform our economy.’

Aside from sounding like supermarket commercial, at least Ms Gallagher managed to tell the truth with that last sentence. Digital ID will transform Australia’s economy … into all the worst parts of a dystopian horror film. You can read the case against Digital ID here.

Yeah right, “not compulsory”

Just like they say the COVID jabs were never “mandatory”.

You just won’t be able to access government services without a Digital ID, be allowed in certain venues or participate in parts of society. https://t.co/GDdsMMzVHf

— Malcolm Roberts ?? (@MRobertsQLD) December 1, 2023

Shortly after tweeting with the comments turned off (avoiding debate and public feedback?), Ms Gallagher’s post was fact checked with the addition of a rather embarrassing community notes section.

‘Readers added context they thought people might want to know: Labelling Digital ID as ‘voluntary’ can be misleading if it becomes an implicit requirement for essential services. A case in point is India’s Aadhaar system, where initially voluntary digital IDs became essential for accessing various public services and benefits.’

Ouch.

While people were not able to reply to Ms Gallagher directly, they could reblog her post and add their thoughts. They had a lot of thoughts…

It amused people to no end that the same government desperate to bring in so-called ‘misinformation and disinformation’ controls had Ministers being pulled up on social media for doing exactly that – spreading information of a misleading and dubious quality.

If anything, Ms Gallagher’s tweet served as a working proof that government intends to use its misinformation and disinformation bill to shield unpopular policy from criticism.

The community notes added to her tweet were correct.

‘Not compulsory’ is not the same as declining a flyer or refusing a sample in a sweet shop. In those cases, there are no consequences or impediments placed upon those who reject the offering. When it comes to the government implementing Digital ID, the express plan and scope of the full project – of which Digital ID is merely one piece – makes it explicit that citizens will not be able to function in the new digital Utopia without a Digital ID. That is the point. Trial the project at a government service level and then expand it rapidly outwards into all parts of the economy.

Digital ID will be ‘not compulsory’ in the same way that Covid vaccines were ‘voluntary’.

Remember how many elected representatives scoffed in the faces of citizens who complained about being coerced and threatened? No doubt the government will afford the same level of sympathy to those who’d rather pass on Digital ID.

What people are wondering now is why has this helpful and accurate community note vanished into thin air…

Usually this happens if it is ‘downvoted’ as not helpful, but considering Ms Gallagher is being brutally ‘ratio-ed’ (where negative responses vastly outweigh positive ones), it seems difficult to believe that enough people have been mobilised to achieve this censoring of context.

Considering we lack transparency on the mysterious world of community notes, perhaps the Minister would like to answer the accusation of so-called ‘optional uptake’ directly and set in law a guaranteed means of avoiding Digital ID in government services in perpetuity?

Turning the comments off, Ms Gallagher, will not shield this Bill from scrutiny.