Significant policy decisions were made for Digital ID as part of the 2026–27 Budget. The following statement provides a brief overview.
Charging for myID and user choice policy
The Australian Government has set arrangements for charging and user choice of Digital ID providers in the Australian Government Digital ID System. The government’s decision will provide certainty to the private sector and ensure competitive neutrality requirements are met ahead of businesses being able to apply to participate in the government system from 1 December 2026.
The government’s decision means that when the government system becomes open to the private sector:
- the government will charge businesses for the use of myID as a relying party (from 1 January 2027 at the latest).
- Private Digital ID providers approved to participate in the government system will be able to charge commercially for their Digital ID services, including with government relying parties if the government relying party wishes to use a service other than myID
- some government services will be able to choose whether to use private Digital ID providers but there will be no default requirement for them to offer users choice of Digital ID provider
- other government services — those where fraud could significantly impact people’s financial circumstances — will not accept a private Digital ID provider, with a list of these services to be published in due course
- government services (including Australian, state and territory government services) will continue to use the government’s Digital ID services without charge, consistent with existing arrangements
- individual users will continue to not be charged for the creation or use of a myID. The charging will apply only to participating relying parties.
Government fees for myID will apply only when myID is being used with a relying party that is listed on the Australian Government Digital ID System Register. For example, if a bank joins the government system and is listed on the register and uses myID to verify the identity of its customers, the bank would be charged for using myID. Machine-to-machine (M2M) verifications with myID (such as those used by accounting software providers when interacting with the Australian Taxation Office) will not incur charges at this stage.
The government is working to set prices for the use of myID and implement administrative functions such as invoicing. The government envisages that initial charging arrangements would be based on a simple per transaction fee with invoices issued in arrears once charging commences.
The process to set myID fees will include a mandatory public consultation period for 28 days, which is expected to occur later this year. The new policy settings, including pricing, will be reviewed after a year in operation.
The government has chosen not to charge businesses for using the Australian Taxation Office’s Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) and Services Australia’s Digital ID Exchange, and not to introduce regulatory charging such as accreditation fees at this time. However, charging for these services may be introduced at a future date, likely once the private market in the government system has matured and arrangements for myID charging have been in operation for a period of time.
Risk and liability
The government is also taking steps to finalise the liability settings for Digital ID. The allocation of risk between businesses choosing to participate in Australia’s Digital ID System is important to assist businesses with their investment and insurance decisions. The Digital ID Act 2024 already provides some liability protection for Digital ID providers within the government system through a statutory contract and a liability shield. The government will:
- Consult industry on appropriate liability arrangements between approved Digital ID providers, and government and business services that use Digital ID within the government system, to reflect the commercial value of accredited services provided.
- Consider the introduction of additional liability arrangements, including caps, between approved Digital ID providers, and government and business services who use Digital ID to promote accountability while supporting commercial incentives.
Verifiable credentials
Following the successful pilot of the technology involved in developing and deploying verifiable credentials (VC) through the digital ID system, the government is now focusing on developing comprehensive policy settings for the issuance and acceptance of VCs. Throughout 2026-27 the government will progress a Commonwealth VC Trust Framework in consultation with industry, Commonwealth agencies and the states and territories. This trust framework is critical to ensure that Commonwealth VCs are:
- issued consistently and are simple to use (that is, they are interoperable with other VC systems)
- consistent with policy intent of the issuing agency
- issued with the right consumer safety and protection settings.
