Minister promises virus app will be safe

The federal government will release an app in the next fortnight using Bluetooth connections to track down people who have come in contact with others carrying the deadly disease.

Mr Joyce, the former deputy prime minister, and Nationals colleague Llew O'Brien are refusing to sign up, citing privacy concerns.

But the minister in charge of the app has gone on the counterattack against the rebel MPs, arguing they don't understand how it works.

"I think most Australians, like me, aren't too concerned where Barnaby is," Government Services Minister Stuart Robert told the ABC.

"Barnaby is concerned that someone is tracking or surveilling him, that couldn't be further from the case."

Mr Joyce fears the Chinese government will wage a cyber attack against Australia to collect data.

"My major concern is, it doesn't matter what they say, there is always the capacity for people to hack into it," he told Seven's Sunrise.

The Singapore TraceTogether app that is the basis of the Australian version stores data on a user's phone only, unless health officials ask to access it.

It records anonymised IDs of phones the user's mobile has exchanged a Bluetooth "handshake" with and stores that information for 21 days.

Mr Robert has promised to undertake a privacy assessment and publish the Australian app's code to allay fears surrounding the scheme.

The cybersecurity co-operative research centre, which is partially government-funded, has already been reviewing the Australian version.

"We need more time and information before we can give this a final thumbs-up, but the app already passes the early tests of security and privacy," chief executive Rachael Falk said.

At least 40 per cent of the population needs to sign up to make it effective.

The government has raised the prospect of easing coronavirus restrictions if enough people get on board.

University of Wollongong cybersecurity expert Katina Michael says it's important not to confuse uptake of any app with reducing infections.

"Apps don't reduce transmission, they help to identify individuals who have come into contact with people who are a COVID confirmed case," she said.

ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman says the benefits of such an app are twofold.

It saves contact tracers a lot of time in getting the names and numbers of people exposed to the infection.

It can also give people more reassurance they would find out if they were at risk of contracting coronavirus.

"Otherwise you'd have to rely on the memory of the case to give you that information, to give the contact tracer that information," she told AAP.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has agreed to sign up to the app if privacy issues are examined by parliament's powerful intelligence and security committee.

Mr Robert, who presided over a massive crash of Centrelink's website last month, also rejected suggestions there would be glitches with the technology.

Australian Associated Press