My GovID Stuffed, Threats Of Up To A Million, In Director Fines & Bill Shorten Stays Silent

Bill Shorten, the Minister for Government Services which includes MyGov ID loves to mouth off about private Companies such as Optus and their cybersecurity breach, but remain silent about the shambolic Gov ID app that locks people out, asks for repeated information despite that information already having been supplied.

Now the Australian Tax Office along with Bill Shortens Departments are threatening directors of businesses large and small, with massive fines ranging from $13,000 to $1M if they do not register via the MyGov ID their business details in particular their directorship of businesses by November 30th 2022.

This is the same Bill shorten who openly attacked the Optus handling of its recent data breach.

He recently took to mouthing off in true Shorten style when he claimed that Optus executives including CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin were “kidding themselves” if they thought customers were happy with how they had communicated.

He even called a press conference to slam Optus.

What he is not telling business executives is just poorly designed the MyGov app really is, or how many people are complaining and a MyGov ID press conference would be an ideal way for him to set the records straight.

I for one review smartphones and I often change my device.

I have on at least two occasions logged into MyGov, created a profile, and provided information including my passport number, drivers licence etc.

The My GovID app even confirmed my International Vaccination Certificate and provided a link to my Medicare app but now it does not recognise me with all my details.

Loves to mouth off about other peoples problems but not his own.

Once again, I am being told that the information on my MyGov profile is “basic” despite large amounts of profile information being supplied in the past.

When I came to log in to activate my Directors ID, I was prompted to renter all my profile data again including Australian Passport, Drivers Licence, Australian Visa, or Birth Certificate.

A call to the so called MyGov ID support line was met with a message claiming that Bill Shortens department was not able to take or answer my call because they were overloaded with calls.

This is a Minister who loves to bang on about cyber security but fails to deliver the most basic of service for Australian business.

Airlines and hundreds of other essential apps such as health services and hospitals, manage to deliver a service based on only entering security data once with a security check service based on one telephone number, but not the department for Government Services, who appear to have designed an app so that every time you change a mobile device you have to once again log in and supply new details.

We are still wating for a response from Bill Shortens Department.

Are you having problems with your My Gov ID app, tell me about it.

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.