The days of Australians scrambling to pull together their driver’s licence and multiple documents to prove their identity could soon be over, after Finance Minister Katy Gallagher ambitiously predicted a new national digital verification service could be in place within 12 months.

The digital ID scheme was an undelivered plan of the previous Coalition government that sought to allow citizens to bundle together their existing licences and credentials on a government-regulated platform, which other organisations could access securely to verify customers’ identities online.