Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson says the government "will not be making any apology" for sending the images of 410,000 Tasmanian driver's licence holders to a federal facial recognition database.
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It comes after a civil liberties representative began a petition of Tasmanians requesting to have their images deleted and destroyed from the database, stating the sharing of the images was done without the knowledge or consent of licence holders.
Tasmania and Victoria are the only states to upload the images for the Department of Home Affairs as part of a program that is planned to stamp out identity fraud, although the legislation was knocked back.
MORE ON THE FACIAL RECOGNITION DEBATE:
Mr Ferguson said those concerned about their images being stored could be assured that their data "is being taken care of appropriately".
"No information is being provided to other agencies without lawful reason to do so, for example for law enforcement reasons. And while the federal parliament continues to deal with its best legislation for the national scheme going forward, Tasmanians' data is protected," he said.
"The data systems have been established to allow the future schemes to operate."
"The Tasmanian Government will not be making any apology for taking steps that supports people from their identity theft."
Tasmanian director of Civil Liberties Tasmania started an online petition, calling on anyone who wishes to "assert our legal and moral rights over our facial images" to register their name.
Labor justice spokesperson Ella Haddad said the government needed to be upfront with Tasmanians.
"Labor is concerned that the Liberals continue to keep crucial information like this hidden from the community," she said.
"Instead of being upfront and honest about their plans, Will Hodgman is intent on keeping the public in the dark."
The Greens have also raised concerns, with leader Cassy O'Connor joining calls on social media for the images to be destroyed.