Digital ID and Queensland property: what myID can and cannot do

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A person who rents, buys, sells or borrows against a home in Queensland proves who they are several times over. The property manager asks, then the selling agent, the conveyancer and the lender, and each keeps some record of the answer. Meanwhile most adults now carry a government-backed way of proving identity on their phone, and it is reasonable to wonder why it cannot simply be shown once to all of them.

The short answer is that the national Digital ID system was built first for government services, and is only now being opened to the private sector. Each of the property checks sits under a different law, and each of those laws decides for itself what counts as proof. This guide sets out what a Digital ID is, what the Digital ID Act 2024 says about choice, and where each property touchpoint stands in October 2026: what is accepted, what is merely possible, and what has been announced but has not started.

Minister for Finance media release, June 2026; Residential Tenancies Authority fact sheets on rental applications.

What a Digital ID is, and what it is not

The federal government's Digital ID system site describes a Digital ID as an online way to confirm identity without handing over physical documents. A person proves who they are once, to a provider, by having identity documents checked against the records of the bodies that issued them. After that, the provider vouches for the person each time a service asks, and passes on only the details the person agrees to share.

The Australian Government's own provider is myID. The Digital ID system site says a person must be 15 or older to set one up and needs their own email address and a smartphone or tablet. It is free for individuals.

A Digital ID is not a card or a document: there is nothing to photocopy, which is much of the point. It does not replace physical documents either; the same site calls it an alternative to them. And it is not a digital driver licence, a state credential covered separately below.

In a media release of late June 2026, the Minister for Finance, Senator Katy Gallagher, said 264 government services accept Digital ID, made up of 155 Commonwealth services and 109 state and territory services. The release counted more than 113 million authenticated transactions between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026, up from 36.5 million in the comparable period before.

Three identity strengths

Not every Digital ID proves the same amount. The system uses identity proofing levels, which myID presents as three strengths.

The myID site adds that an Australian passport can be one of the documents used to reach Strong, and that the holder must then verify their photo.

The strengths matter for property because the checks in a sale or a loan are high-value checks. A Basic identity built on an email address tells a conveyancer very little; a Strong one says documents were matched to a face. Which strength is enough is a decision for the business relying on it, under its own law.

The Act, its two regulators and the phased opening

The Digital ID Act 2024 received royal assent on 30 May 2024. The Digital ID system site says the Act and its supporting instruments took effect on 30 November 2024, and a government fact sheet describes the new arrangements as operating from 1 December 2024.

The Act does two separate things. First, it puts a voluntary accreditation scheme into law. Any provider of digital identity services, public or private, may apply to be accredited against rules covering privacy, security, usability, accessibility, risk management and fraud control. Accredited providers may display a trustmark and appear on a public register. Private providers can be accredited today.

Second, it governs the Australian Government Digital ID System, the network through which myID is used to reach services. Joining that system is a further step, and the Act phases in who may take it. Since late 2024 only Commonwealth, state and territory government bodies have been eligible. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's regulator page, last updated in July 2026, says the private sector can join from December 2026.

Two regulators share the oversight. The ACCC is the Digital ID Regulator: it accredits providers, approves participation in the government system, keeps the two public registers and enforces the rules and data standards. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is the privacy regulator for the scheme.

The last two steps come from the Minister's June 2026 release and are still ahead.

Voluntary, with an alternative: what the law actually says

The Digital ID system site states the principle in these words: "the creation and use of a Digital ID by an individual is voluntary."

The legal rule is narrower and more precise than the slogan. An ACCC fact sheet on voluntariness, dated October 2025, explains that section 74 of the Act applies to participating relying parties in the Australian Government Digital ID System, meaning organisations approved to accept a Digital ID through that system. Those organisations cannot require an individual to use a Digital ID and must offer another way of proving identity. The alternative must not be substantially less favourable: the fact sheet gives the example of a person who declines to use a Digital ID being left with view-only access, which would not meet the rule.

There are exceptions. The rule protects individuals acting for themselves, including sole traders. It does not apply where a person acts on behalf of another legal entity in a professional or business capacity; the fact sheet's example is an accountant lodging a return for a client business. The ACCC may also grant an exemption in limited cases, and may weigh whether the applicant is a small business or offers an online-only service, though the fact sheet says neither earns an exemption automatically.

For property, any private business that joins the government system and accepts myID will carry the duty to keep another route open. One that never joins has no section 74 duty, though in most settings below the sector's own law already gives the customer a choice.

Rental applications: Queensland's own limits

Since 1 May 2025, the Residential Tenancies Authority says, property managers and owners must use a standardised application form: Form 22 for general tenancies and moveable dwellings, and Form R22 for rooming accommodation. The form may not ask for more than the approved version contains. Supporting documents fall into three categories, namely identity, ability to pay rent and suitability, and no more than two documents may be requested in each.

Two further rules bear on how identity is shown. The first is the applicant's choice of method. The RTA's fact sheets say an applicant can either provide a copy of an original identity document or let the manager sight the original in person. If the original is sighted, the manager must not keep a copy or record its details without the applicant's consent. An RTA explainer of July 2025 adds that a photocopy, scan or photo counts as keeping a copy, while a note that a document was sighted, with its type and number, does not. Keeping a copy without consent is an offence carrying up to 20 penalty units.

The second is the choice of channel. A manager must offer at least two ways to lodge an application, and at least one must be non-restrictive. The RTA treats as restrictive any method that requires the applicant to put personal information into an online platform, or to give it to a third party that is not an agent collecting it for the manager, and any method that costs the applicant money.

Where does a Digital ID fit? The RTA's material does not mention one. The same July 2025 explainer notes that the Act does not define identity documents, and says they typically include government-issued items such as passports, driver licences and birth certificates. So nothing in the RTA's guidance names a Digital ID as an identity document, and nothing rules out an applicant choosing to show a digital credential in person. What the rules do settle is that a platform-only application process, with or without a Digital ID step, cannot be the sole route.

Information from unsuccessful applicants must be destroyed within three months of the successful tenant's agreement starting, and information collected during a tenancy within seven years of its end.

Selling and buying through an agent: the AUSTRAC check

From 1 July 2026, real estate agencies have been reporting entities under the federal anti-money-laundering regime, and must carry out customer due diligence on sellers and buyers. How an agency builds its program is covered in a separate guide; the narrow question here is whether a Digital ID can do the identity part.

AUSTRAC's reformed rules are written around outcomes, not lists. Its guidance on individual customers, last updated on 31 March 2026, says an agency could collect a person's full name, other names, date of birth, residential address and any unique identifier, and should verify at least the full name and date of birth. Verification may rest on a government-issued photographic document, or on a non-photographic document plus a secondary one. The guidance also describes remote methods: comparing a person on a live video call with their document, or using biometric technology from an identity verification provider to compare the document with the person's appearance.

That page does not mention Digital ID, myID or the Digital ID Act. The clearest official statement comes from the Department of Home Affairs. Its page on the changes to customer due diligence says entities may use third-party digital identity providers, provided they are satisfied the check suits the customer's risk and rests on independent and reliable data. It adds that the entity itself remains responsible for meeting its obligations, including record keeping.

The Home Affairs page also says entities need not keep copies of identity documents: they must record what they did and the identifying details presented, and keep that record for seven years.

So the anti-money-laundering regime leaves room for a digital identity service, without naming the government system or giving accredited providers any special status. The agency decides, on risk, and carries the responsibility.

Conveyancing: what ARNECC says, exactly

Electronic conveyancing has its own rule, set by the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council in the Model Participation Rules. The rule and its face-to-face standard are explained in the magazine's guide to verification of identity; this section deals only with the Digital ID question.

ARNECC has answered it in a published guidance query, GQ 01/2025, titled Digital ID Providers.

The document restates that subscribers, the lawyers, conveyancers and lenders who use the electronic system, must take reasonable steps to verify the identity of people such as clients and mortgagors. It restates that a subscriber may apply the face-to-face Verification of Identity Standard in Schedule 8 of the rules, in which case the steps taken are, in ARNECC's words, "deemed to constitute reasonable steps". Otherwise the subscriber may verify identity in another way that it considers reasonable.

Then it describes practice. Subscribers who use Digital ID services, ARNECC says, do so either on their own, after assessing that this amounts to reasonable steps, or in addition to the standard. The guidance notes that Commonwealth accreditation of Digital ID providers is voluntary, that accredited providers have chosen to be regulated on matters such as privacy, security and fraud control, and that they have been able to display the trustmark since 1 December 2024.

What ARNECC does not say is as important. It does not say a Digital ID satisfies the Verification of Identity Standard, which remains a face-to-face process with original documents. It does not say that using an accredited provider is deemed to be reasonable steps. The only method with that deemed status is the Schedule 8 standard. A subscriber who relies on a Digital ID alone has made its own judgment and would have to be able to show why that judgment was reasonable in the circumstances.

Accreditation tells a conveyancer how a provider is regulated. It does not move the responsibility for the check off the conveyancer's desk.

Lenders, mortgages and Titles Queensland

A borrower meets two identity duties in one loan. The lender is a long-standing reporting entity under the anti-money-laundering regime, and the same outcome-based rules described above now apply to it. As a mortgagee using the electronic system, it is also a subscriber bound by ARNECC's reasonable steps rule for mortgagors.

The Australian Banking Association's Digital ID page, last modified in September 2026, says banks are "actively exploring digital identity initiatives" and supports interoperability between public and private options. It does not say that banks will join the government system when eligibility opens.

For paper instruments lodged with the land registry, Titles Queensland's guidance on signing and witnessing says witnessing officers must take reasonable steps to verify the identity of the person signing and keep a record of those steps. They can do so by applying the Verification of Identity Standard in the Land Title Practice Manual. That page does not mention a Digital ID.

The Queensland Digital Licence is a different thing

The Queensland Government describes the Digital Licence app as an optional way to store credentials including a driver licence, photo identification card, recreational marine licence and QBCC licences. Its page, last updated in July 2026, says that under legislation passed in 2020 a digital licence can legally be used in place of a physical licence in Queensland, and that it can prove identity and age in settings such as licensed venues and parcel collection. The holder chooses what to share and consents each time; an age check shows a photo and an over-18 confirmation without name or address. A verifier can look at the screen or scan a code, so the phone need not be handed over. The app is built to the international standard for mobile driver licences, ISO 18013-5.

The same page is plain about the limit: digital licences "are not accepted everywhere", and it suggests carrying the card as a backup.

In property terms, a digital licence is a digital version of a document. It can be sighted, in person, like the card it mirrors, where the business accepts it. A Digital ID such as myID is an online login that confirms identity to a service that has connected to the system.

Data minimisation: the benefit and its limits

The strongest argument for Digital ID in property is that fewer copies of passports and licences would sit in inboxes and application systems. Queensland's rental rules, with their sight-only option and destruction deadlines, and the Home Affairs statement that agencies need not keep document copies, both push in that direction.

The Act adds protections of its own for accredited providers. The Digital ID system site lists a prohibition on single identifiers, a prohibition on disclosing information for marketing, and restrictions on collecting, using and disclosing biometrics. The OAIC's Digital ID page describes the matters it can act on, which include data profiling, unlawful disclosure to law enforcement, sharing personal information without express consent, and keeping restricted information beyond set limits after a verification session. A breach of these safeguards can be treated as an interference with privacy under the Privacy Act.

The limits are equally real. The safeguards bind accredited providers when they provide accredited services; a business that receives a verified name and date of birth is still governed by the Privacy Act or state privacy law for what it does next. The record-keeping duties do not disappear: an agency must still keep its seven-year record of the check, and a conveyancer must still be able to show its reasonable steps. A Digital ID confirms that a person is who they say they are. It does not confirm that they own the property, that they are entitled to sign, or that the person on the other end of an email is the same person who logged in.

There is also an access limit. A Digital ID needs a smartphone or tablet, an email address and documents that can be matched online. People without those are the reason every regime described here keeps a paper or in-person route.

Announced, but not yet in force

Three things are on the calendar and are not yet current. The first is private participation. The Minister's June 2026 release said that from 1 December 2026 accredited private Digital ID providers can join the government system, that selected government services may use them, and that providers can charge commercially. It also set out two limits: services decide whether to use private providers, and higher-risk services, where fraud could seriously affect a person's finances, will not accept them. Law firm commentary, including an Allens briefing of April 2026, gives 30 November 2026 as the date private entities become eligible to apply.

The second is cost. Government services will keep using the government Digital ID at no charge and individuals will keep myID for free. Businesses that use myID to deliver their own services are to start contributing to its costs from 1 January 2027 at the latest, with pricing to be settled after consultation. No price has been published.

The third is review. The Allens briefing notes that the Act requires a review of its operation by 30 November 2026, and that an exposure draft of further redress framework rules went to public consultation that closed on 1 April 2026.

None of the property rule-makers has announced a change tied to these dates. The RTA's application rules, AUSTRAC's guidance, ARNECC's guidance query and the Titles Queensland witnessing requirements read today as they are described above.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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