The Tasmanian government has removed more than 468,000 driver’s licence photos from a national facial recognition database, citing concerns about how the biometric data would be protected.
State Growth deputy secretary of transport Cynthia Heydon confirmed the recall to a budget estimates committee on June 4.
Tasmania uploaded the licence images to a segregated section of the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution between December 2018 and December 2020.
The uploads happened without the consent of licence-holders and before federal laws were in place to govern the system.
“In July last year, noting we have not entered into a participation agreement with the Australian government, we have chosen to have all of the Tasmanian driver’s licence images removed and associated data removed from that system,” Heydon said.
Asked what had happened to the data, Heydon said the government had recovered all of it.
The Commonwealth attorney-general’s department confirmed in late 2025 that the Tasmanian data had been removed.
Independent Nelson MLC Meg Webb first called for the data to be returned in 2020 and has pushed for it repeatedly since.
She welcomed the move but questioned why the government was now mandating similar technology in gambling venues.
“If the safety of Tasmanians’ sensitive facial and biometric data cannot be guaranteed when held by a national government database, how on earth can it be considered safe when collected by state gambling venues?” she said.
The state government in January shelved a promised pokies pre-commitment card in favour of measures including mandatory facial recognition in venues with gaming machines.
“It is not too late. I urge the premier and treasurer to return to the safer and proven effective mandatory pokies pre-commitment card,” Webb said.
