Doctors, nurses, business and bankers have been quick to back the Morrison government's COVID-19 tracer app, which aims to help health officials identify people who may have come into contact with someone with the disease.
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Called COVIDSafe, the voluntary app became available for download and registration on Sunday evening.
"It assists in the early alert and finding of people who may have been in contact with a person who is positive with a diagnosis," federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters as he announced the launch of the app in Canberra on Sunday.
The app is based on Singapore's Tracetogether software, which records the Bluetooth connections a phone makes with others so the user can give that data to state health authorities if they catch the virus.
The government hopes a broader testing regime and the contact tracing app will lead to a relaxation of the economic shutdown sooner.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told ABC radio that only health authorities would have access to the data.
"It's another tool we need to get back to normal as much as we can," he said.
He said the contact numbers picked up by a person's phone are only downloaded by a health officer when someone gets the coronavirus and gives permission.
"No other government agency can use this information, no one in the commonwealth government at all, and in state authorities, only the health officer can use it," he said.
"Not the police, not the welfare people, nowhere else. Just the health officer."
Australian Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said important safeguards were in place to protect personal information collected via the app, and her office would watch its implementation closely.
"We can audit the system and investigate complaints from the public about privacy issues," the commissioner said in a statement on Sunday.
Labor health spokesman Chris Bowen said the app had been activated under the Biosecurity Act as an interim measure, but expects it will be legislated when parliament sits in mid-May and that will be important to assure Australians of their privacy.
"I'd be happy to download the app," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney.
"The only people I've seen say that they won't download the app are Liberal and National MPs."
Australian Medical Association President Tony Bartone told reporters the app was an important part of Australia's response to the pandemic.
"The COVID-19 COVIDSafe app will assist in the contact tracing process, that laborious slow process which, together with the marvellous community response, has been implicitly responsible for reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the community and flattening the curve," Dr Bartone said.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott urged all Australians to download the app.
"The more Australians who download the app the safer we will all be and the more quickly we can begin to ease restrictions," she said in a statement.
Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said Australia's bank chiefs were right behind efforts to open up the economy in the coming weeks.
Australian Nobel laureate and immunologist Peter Doherty will be signing up for it, saying "anything that helps us wrestle COVID-19 to the ground is a plus".
However, Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright said there were still concerns around a lack of provision for oversight and reporting on the app's use.
Research from the Australia Institute shows 45 per cent of Australians say they will download and use the mobile app, while 28 per cent say they won't. A further 27 per cent were unsure.
Australian Associated Press
