Services Australia backs Covid vaccine passports after Rex Patrick raises forgery concerns

Certificates created using the government's Medicare app are expected to give vaccinated Australians additional freedoms as the country works toward a staged removal of Covid restrictions.

A national cabinet plan has agreed a vaccination target rate of 70 per cent would need to be achieved before lockdowns and border closures can be peeled back.

But security concerns are being raised over whether the vaccination certificates are secure enough after examples of falsified documents were posted on social media.

Services Australia, the agency in charge of managing the system, has defended its vaccine passports, adding it had created safeguards to protect it against forgery.

Independent senator Rex Patrick uploaded an edited certificate on Twitter earlier this month to demonstrate just how easily it was to fool the untrained eye.

It was concerning that many of the government's promises were underpinned by a system with faults, he said.

"It basically undermines the health response," he told The Canberra Times.

"Whichever of the measures people decide to tie to this, if you have a forged certificate, you undermine the measure.

"It becomes valuable after I start saying to you, 'You can't travel to South Australia unless you've got one of these'."

Services Australia spokesman Hank Jongen said the system, with the help of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, had a number of protections in place to stop forgeries.

Animated ticks, a live clock, and a shimmering Coat of Arms were among some of the measures.

"Services Australia is continually evolving proof of vaccination certificates, including strengthening security measures," Mr Jongen said.

"We have confidence in the robust monitoring and fraud-detection mechanisms in place to protect the integrity of COVID-19 digital certificates."

But software developer Richard Nelson said he had found another flaw in the system, allowing him to generate false vaccine passports.

Unlike Senator Patrick's method, a certificate could be generated through the app with limited technical knowledge, he said.

"It's really concerning that there's no way for somebody looking at it to verify that what they're looking at is valid and trusted," Mr Nelson said.

Mr Nelson reported the flaw to the agency last week but still hasn't received an acknowledgment that it is being investigated.

"I didn't hear back from Services Australia and it's hard for me to tell who it actually got to and if it got to the right people," he said.

"I think if that [process] was much easier, they would have probably less of a PR problem when these kinds of issues arise."

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Senator Patrick suggested Australian-developed software be considered instead of the government's Medicare certificate offering.

The independent senator said its recent track record of developing tech solutions in the pandemic, such as the plagued COVIDSafe app, had not given him confidence.

"[COVIDSafe] is the worst piece of software ever developed," Senator Patrick said.

"I don't want the government trying to repeat that effort in circumstances where there is an off-the-shelf Australian solution available."

A survey of 1000 workers by Employment Hero released last week showed strong support for vaccine passports in Australia with 71 per cent backing the idea.

NSW (77 per cent) and Victoria (70 per cent) were among the states with the highest support for the concept.

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