New law paves the way for digital statutory declarations

One of the last vestiges of centuries of paper and ink has finally fallen, after federal attorney-general Mark Dreyfus wrote into law the permanent ability to use digital execution, electronic signatures and video witnessing to create statutory declarations.

In a mark of how the world has permanently changed in the wake of COVID, the nation’s chief law officer says that “all three methods will be an equally valid and legally effective form of Commonwealth statutory declaration”.

The new digital declarations also come with the requirement that “approved online platforms and identity services demonstrate they comply with privacy laws and have robust fraud and security arrangements”, meaning that data-hoarding by so-called Big Tech to mine declarations is officially off limits.

“The Bill also prohibits approved online platforms from retaining copies of statutory declarations, noting that they can hold particularly sensitive personal information. There is also an annual reporting requirement to the Parliament on the operation of the online execution platform,” a statement from Dreyfus said.

The main reason ‘stat decs’ are made is to initiate or validate some form of transaction or transfer or delegation of authority.

While e-signatures are at least 10 years old, it’s been the mustering of all the required signatories to be physically in the same place at the same time for what is essentially a visual cross-check that has proved the legislative sticking point.

“Australians spend an estimated 9 million hours each year executing and processing more than 3.8 million statutory declarations. Historically, these documents have been strictly paper-based, requiring they be witnessed in person and signed in ink,” the statement from Dreyfus said.

The movement by the federal jurisdiction to allow digital stat decs is important because it will allow other jurisdictions to follow the same standards and avoid the risk of different rules for different states that don’t interoperate with Canberra.

This is especially important in areas like health and social services where people often have their affairs managed for them.

While there are no huge financial savings — the government estimates around $150 million a year — it’s the speed and ease with which electronic processes can now be executed that makes the difference for exchanging parties, meaning that services can be delivered much faster without days or weeks elapsing to get paperwork moving.

An equally important part of the new legislation is that it takes account of the forthcoming mainstream rollout of digital identity credentials, future-proofing e-signatures and statutory declarations.

“The Bill also enables people to digitally execute a statutory declaration using the online platform myGov and the myGov ID Digital ID,” the statement from Dreyfus said.

“Importantly, this bill does not remove the ability for Australians to continue executing statutory declarations through the traditional, paper-based method should they wish to do so.”

This article was first published by The Mandarin.