Businesses in the state of New South Wales (NSW) are getting ready to reopen on Monday, while the state’s vaccine passport app remains “weeks” away.
He said the government aimed to roll out the feature to the public by Oct. 18, making NSW the first Australian state to have it.
“We’ve got to get the privacy and security settings in place; we’re not going to take any shortcuts on that,” Dominello said. “And we only just got the data from the feds (federal government) about five or six days ago, so we’re moving at pace.”
Dominello previously said people could access their vaccination certification “right now” through the Medicare express app or call Service NSW or the Australian Immunisation Register for a hard copy if required.
Everyone will be required to show their vaccination status when entering venues until Dec. 1, when all restrictions will lift.
But Dominello said that it would be up to the individual to comply with the public health orders and produce genuine documents.
“Businesses cannot be de-facto police officers in this; it’s not fair on them,” he said. “[So at the moment] when they see a document, whether it’s the Google, Apple, or Samsung wallet, or the Medicare certificate—it’s on faith.”
Dominello said businesses should not be confrontational and just call authorities if they suspect someone is producing a fake vaccine certificate.
The NSW government has tried to assure the public that the app would protect their privacy. However, with the new feature, users will be asked to give the app consent to access their immunisation records before it can display their vaccination status.
The downgrading of this classification means domestic vaccine passports are no longer necessary.