The next stage of Australia's Digital ID rollout

In this episode of the Actionable Truth Podcast I was joined by Rhys Gillen.

Rhys is an Australian cybersecurity professional who also has a YouTube channel called Tech Win Cyber where he published some great videos about the current state of the rollout of Australia’s national digital ID system MyID, as well as the next major stage in the rollout scheduled for November this year (2026).

This is when the private sector will be granted access to the scheme through what is known as the Trust Exchange (TEx) & the government's Digital ID trustmark accreditation scheme.

What we know so far about Labor’s Trust Exchange initiative

Bill Shorten has revealed the next step in the government’s move towards Digital Identification: the Trust Exchange (TEx).

SmartCompanyTegan Jones

What was discussed?

Below are a few highlights:

Where to watch?

You can watch this episode in full below as well as on Rumble and Odysee

Where to listen?

You can listen to the episode below or anywhere else you get your podcasts, with the exception of Spotify.

Back in the December last year (2025), the Australian Government has banned people under 16 year old from using designated social media platforms and at the same time mandated those very same platforms to introduce "reasonable steps" to prevent Australians under 16 from maintaining active accounts on their platforms or opening new ones.

As I predicted in this piece published merely three days after the ban came into effect, this ban has since been either already introduced in many other countries or is in the advance stages of rollout.

It’s CRUNCH TIME IN Australia & the UK. Rolling out EVERYWHERE very soon!

ATTENTION: I have now LEFT Substack

Actionable Truth MediaMichael Ginsburg

Another prediction I made in the above piece was that this approach will ultimately fail.

This has now well and truly come to pass as confirmed by the government's own enforcing agency, the eSafety Commission.

More than 80% of kids still using social media despite ban, new eSafety report finds

The report provides more evidence Australia’s world-leading social media ban isn’t going to plan.

The ConversationLisa M. Given

Why young people say the social media ban is not working six months on

Research suggests many under-16s are still active on social media platforms. BTN High explores why and tests the accuracy of popular technology used to estimate age.

ABC NewsWren Gillett

The eSafety Commissioner (a.k.a. eKaren) is obviously going to do what was the plan all along: double down!

What happens next?

Exactly what the Australian online commentator Nobody said will happen right before the ban first started in December 2025:

As Rhys and I discussed in this episode, one option that may (and likely) will be used to 'better' enforce the ban in Australia is ConnectID:

Snapchat are already using them through an integration the age verification/assurance provider they contracted (K-ID) has with ConnectID:

ConnectID powers privacy-preserving age assurance for Snapchat users - Australian Payments Plus

Users of Snapchat are now able to verify that they are over 16 without uploading a passport or driver’s licence, or needing to share biometric information like a selfie, thanks to a privacy-preserving solution enabled by ConnectID. ConnectID is expected to be live with multiple other well-known social media platforms by 10 December. The launch […]

Australian Payments PlusJulie Erissy

As Rhys and I discussed in the podcast, the audit reports for Australia's national digital ID system were far from glowing.

Australia’s new digital ID scheme falls short of global privacy standards. Here’s how it can be fixed

Australia’s Trust Exchange system offers greater convenience and security for everyday transactions. But the government must make sure it protects Australians’ privacy.

The ConversationAshish Nanda

Obviously the government doesn't actually care about that because there is a different agenda at play here...but nevertheless this can still be useful when deploying the strategy I outline below to prevent further adoption:

Stopping the Digital ID Locomotive - a strategy that WILL work

Elaborating further my strategy of using fear-based campaigns to get the “normies” to reject digital ID

Actionable Truth MediaMichael Ginsburg

Rhys has some great videos on his channel about the rollout of Digital ID in Australia, privacy, AI and other related concepts.

The video I recommend the most is the one which directly resulted in me wanting to have Rhys on the podcast:

Two other videos from Rhys I recommend about the rollout of Digital ID in Australia

Good video from Rhys about the rollout of Digital ID in the UK

While there is no denying that the situation in Australia is currently looking pretty grim, there are two main actions people in Australia need to start taking right now:

Wean yourself of ANY & ALL centralised social media and online platforms in general

As I said in the above clip, the Internet was originally designed to be resilient (but not secure!) and one of the most important aspects which was supposed to enable such resilience was decentralisation.

The Internet was designed to be built around PROTOCOLS rather than around huge platforms which have come to dominate it, especially following the tech crash of the early 2000s.

It is time to get back to that!

Beyond protocols you are probably already familiar with like email (which is a suite of three different protocols), RSS & HTTP/S (which is the protocol you use to browse the web), there are two additional protocols that are worth highlighting in this context.

Nostr

Nostr is a PROTOCOL (i.e. set of standards) which allows you to have a social media identity that is portable.

Your Nostr Identity is comprised of a pair of keys:

1. Public key which is like your profile handle; and
2. Private key which is like your password (and therefore you must keep secret).

You can learn more about Nostr, including some specific services you can start using right now, in the post below:

Escape ID checks & censorship by using decentralised protocols

Lessons from someone who has actually DONE it

Actionable Truth MediaMichael Ginsburg

ActivityPub

ActivityPub is also a PROTOCOL (so again: a set of standards):

ActivityPub is the protocol on which the Fediverse is running. The Fediverse is NOT a single platform but rather various services which all share the same protocol (being ActivityPub):

Unlike Nostr, you do not have full control over your profile and social graph and if you choose a server that ends up banning you, you lose your followers and handle.

However, you can run your own server (from which you can NEVER be banned from) fairly easily if you have a website running on WordPress or on Ghost (which is what I use and what you are reading this on right now).

ActivityPub

Connect your site to the Open Social Web and let millions of users follow, share, and interact with your content from Mastodon, Pixelfed, and more.

WordPress.orgQuentin Le Duff (–Q–)

We MUST do whatever it takes to prevent further adoption of Digital ID schemes

While the current 55% uptake rate (if government data is to believed) of Australia's national Digital ID scheme MyID is not good news (to put it very mildly), it is still not high enough to introduce wide ranging digital ID mandates and is definitely not enough to replace the current Fiat system with a CBDC as the only means of payment.

However, we in Australia are unfortunately not far from the point that one or both of the above DO become viable...and the trend line is going in the opposite direction to what I'd like it to be going: Adoption is increasing rather than decreasing or at least stalling.

Rational arguments and explanations were never going to work very well but now they are a complete waste of time.

The ONLY thing that can work right now (and arguably for some time now) is to trigger an emotional reaction...and there is no human emotion that is even remotely as powerful as FEAR!

I explain the strategy in great detail, including specific talking points in this podcast episode and associated show notes I published almost 1.5 years ago:

This is how we ACTUALLY DEFEAT Digital ID

Failure is NOT an option!

Actionable Truth MediaMichael Ginsburg

If we acted on what is said there at the time, I am CERTAIN we would not have been sitting at a 55% adoption rate for digital ID in Australia. As I explained at the time, time is of the essence and this is much more applicable now than it was 16 months ago.

We are not quite at the point of no return in which the strategy I outline here is no longer viable...but WE ARE NOT THAT FAR FROM IT!

If the adoption rate reaches 80% or more, we are well and truly SCREWED!

We CAN still turn this around....but I simply cannot do this on my own, no matter how much I'd like to!

If you are ready to help, please leave a comment or get in touch.

In case you need a reminder of what's at stake here, THIS is our very near future if we fail to stop this:

To allow me to continue this work and expand it further and in pursuit of the mission to “Tell the Truth…and shame the devil”, your financial contribution is greatly appreciated.