Digital IDs set to become available for Territorians with near $20.7m budget investment

If you’ve ever gone to buy a six-pack and realised your ID’s at home, here’s some good news: Territorians will soon be able to show their ID on their smartphone.

Territorians could soon show their ID on a smartphone, under plans to integrate the digital licenses with the Banned Drinker Register and NT Police systems.

Budget 2024 will invest $20.66m to bring digital driver’s licences to the NT, offering a nationally recognised, trusted option for Territorians looking to leave the wallet at home.

Similar to initiatives already rolled out in South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, the scheme will also allow Evidence of Age cards to become available digitally.

Work on the new digital driver’s licence has already begun with a pilot set to commence late 2025.

Territorians will still receive and be able to use traditional hard copy driver’s licences, the digital driver’s licence is simply another option.

The government said the digital driver’s licences would be based on robust security standards, would help protect people’s important identity information, and give Territorian’s control over what information is shared with commercial identity verifiers.

The technology being used is built to integrate with other NT government systems, such as the Banned Drinker Register, NT Police portable devices and more.

A digital license trial will be rolled out in late 2025. Picture: Supplied.

Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said it would make a big difference for shoppers heading to the bottlo.

“Already tourists come to the NT with digital IDs and we know from States that have rolled them out that a lot of people choose to leave their purses and wallets at home when heading out for the night,” he said.

“With an average 450,000 BDR scans a month we look forward to our customers also being able to head to their local bottle shop just with their smart phone should they choose to.”

Digital Development Minister Selena Uibo said the introduction of digital ID aligned with the government’s Digital Transformation Plan, and would be “easy-to-use, robust, trusted and secure”.

“The digital driver’s licence will follow the design and launch of ‘Territory Services’, a central digital platform created for all NT Government Services.”

Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the move would make it quicker and easier for Territorians to produce ID.

“We want Territorians to have access the best technology this is why we are investing $20.66 million into this digital licence development,” she said.