<nettime> GST forces giant Australian PKI project

["nettime's_roving_reporter" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

http://www.australianit.com.au/common/story_page/0,2405,221846%255E18%252D01
%252D2000%255E,00.html

   GST forces giant PKI project
       By DAN TEBBUTT


   THE federal Government is poised to unleash the world's
   largest public key infrastructure project in an effort to cut
   GST compliance costs.

   The Australian Taxation Office plans to issue up to 2.1 million
   businesses with digital certificates that allow secure online
   dealings with the Tax Office and other government agencies.
   Online filing of monthly GST returns will be mandatory for any
   business with an annual turnover in excess of $20 million.

   Electronic credentials will be issued in conjunction with an 11-digit
   Australian Business Number (ABN) -- the new identification
   scheme that will eventually replace corporate tax file numbers and
   Australian company numbers.

   Employment and Small Business Minister Peter Reith said the
   new system would mean a single reference number and a single
   digital signature for all dealings with Canberra.

   "This digital signature will mean a business could provide its
   details or regulatory information online only once for use by a
   range of agencies, saving time and money," Mr Reith said.

   All federal agencies would be bound to accept the certificates
   except where use of them may not be appropriate.

   State and local regulators would also be encouraged to use the
   ABN digital signature certificate (ABN-DSC).

   Initially, certificates would be issued by the ATO, but by the end of
   the year any vendor approved under the Gatekeeper PKI scheme
   would be able to provide a valid ABN-DSC conforming to the X.509
   3.0 standard.

   "This is positioning Australia as one of the front runners in
   electronic commerce, because it will get digital certificates into the
   hands of so many taxpayer organisations," Baltimore Asia-Pacific
   chief executive John Palfreyman said.

   Baltimore has supplied technology and consulting services for the
   ATO certification authority (CA), and the Anglo-Irish company's
   Certificates Australia subsidiary is the only issuer to receive
   Gatekeeper approval to date.

   Seven other vendors -- KPMG, SecureNet, KNX, Adacel
   Technologies, KeyPost, New Zealand-based GlobeSmart and the
   Com Tech-VeriSign joint venture, eSign -- are currently seeking
   accreditation, as is the ATO's CA operation.

   Certificates Forum of Australia chairman Stephen Wilson
   welcomed last week's release of a draft specification for the
   ABN-DSC plan.

   "The New Zealand experience shows the compliance costs of a
   paper-based GST filing system are horrendous -- it kills small
   business," Mr Wilson said.

   "The ATO has recognised the need to handle the GST online, and
   as a matter of security policy it needs digital signatures to do
   that."

   He said the project was the world's largest PKI civilian
   deployment. He welcomed the use of private-sector CAs, pointing
   out this would ensure the ATO did not incur liability for improper
   use of ABN-DSCs. An online register should be available by
   March.

   Businesses should be able to change ABN details electronically
   from September and vendors would be encouraged to establish a
   common certificate revocation list (CRL) to weed out defunct
   enterprises.

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