Vaccine certificates are ‘not de facto passports’

Australians will be able to use their phones to prove inoculation but the Australian Industry Group says states shouldn’t use a vaccine certificate as a de facto ‘passport’.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert says vaccination certificates will be accessible via the Medicare app. Picture: AFP

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox has warned the states against the use of vaccine certificates as de facto “passports” for cross-border travel, after it was revealed that Australians would be able to use their phones to prove they have been inoculated.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said on Sunday that vaccination certificates were accessible from the Express Plus Medicare app and through accounts on myGov as well available in hard copy.

“For some 89 per cent of Australians that have a smartphone, they will be able to access that digital certificate in their smartphone, download it onto their phone as a permanent record,” he said.

Mr Robert said that inoculations would be recorded using the Australian immunisation register, but it would be open to the states how to use the certificates and whether they would need to be produced at certain venues , such as hospitals.

“We’d be expecting them (the states) to issue public health orders if they see fit. So I will leave that to the states and territories,” he said. “What’s important that the federal government does is provide a record of vaccination to Australians should the need be there for Australians to use it.”

He also said that the opening up of international borders would “require the widespread use of assured certificates”.

Mr Willox said it was not yet known “how a so-called vaccine certificate would be expected to operate or what rights it would give a holder” but sounded a note of caution.

“We would not want a certificate to become a de facto state passport determining who can cross state borders,” Mr Willox said.

“Industry continues to seek clarity around its rights and responsibilities with the vaccines given that employers are obliged to provide a safe and healthy workplace.”

Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight — representing Australia’s leading universities — said that anything the government decided to do in safely opening up the borders to international students would be welcomed.