On 1 December 2026, for the first time, an Australian business will be able to apply to join the Australian Government Digital ID System and verify a customer with the same myID that, by the government’s December 2025 count, more than 15 million Australians already use to deal with the tax office and Centrelink. A bank could open an account, a telco could sign a phone contract and a real estate agent could approve a lease without ever taking a copy of a passport. The Finance Minister set the rules for this on 26 June 2026, and they answer most of the questions a business would ask: who can join, who pays, who regulates it, and what happens when something goes wrong. This article walks through the announcement, the machinery under it, and what a business should do in the ten weeks before the door opens.

What the 26 June announcement actually said

The media release from Finance Minister Katy Gallagher confirmed that the system will support private sector participation from 1 December 2026. Three decisions sit inside that sentence.

The first is who pays. Businesses that choose to use myID to verify their own customers will begin contributing to its costs from 1 January 2027 at the latest. Individuals keep creating and using myID for free, and government services keep using it without charge. The Department of Finance’s accompanying policy statement on charging and user choice fills in the mechanics: the government envisages “a simple per transaction fee with invoices issued in arrears”, fees apply only when myID is used with a relying party listed on the system’s register, and the price will be set after a mandatory 28-day public consultation expected later in 2026. Machine-to-machine verifications, such as accounting software talking to the tax office, will not be charged at this stage, and neither will the tax office’s Relationship Authorisation Manager or Services Australia’s Digital ID Exchange. Accreditation fees are not being introduced for now. The whole arrangement, including pricing, will be reviewed after a year.

The second is choice. Accredited private Digital ID providers that join the government system will be able to charge commercially for their services, including to government agencies that choose to use them. Some government services will be able to pick a private provider, for example where that provider is better at verifying someone with foreign-issued documents than myID is. There is no default requirement for a government service to offer users a choice of provider, and the higher-risk services, “those where fraud could significantly impact people’s financial circumstances”, will not accept a private provider at all. A list of those services is to be published.

The third is liability. The Digital ID Act 2024 already gives providers inside the government system a statutory contract and a liability shield. The government will now consult industry on how risk is allocated between providers and the businesses that rely on them, and will consider additional arrangements including caps. For a business deciding whether to trust a third party’s verification of its customer, that consultation is the one to watch, because it decides who carries the loss when a verified identity turns out to be wrong.

The scale it already runs at

This is not a pilot. The minister’s release puts the numbers on the record: 264 government services now accept a Digital ID, 155 of them Commonwealth and 109 state and territory, and in the twelve months to 30 April 2026 the system handled more than 113 million authenticated transactions, against 36.5 million in the previous corresponding period. That is a threefold increase in a year, before a single private business has been allowed in. The 2026-27 Budget backs it with further investment to maintain and strengthen the system as it moves to full operation under the Act.

The four phases, and where we are

The Digital ID System’s own expansion roadmap, published in November 2024, laid out four overlapping phases. Phase one connected myID to government services. Phase two, from 1 December 2024, let accredited state and territory providers apply to join. Phase three, by December 2026, lets private sector services apply to join as relying parties to verify their customers, and the roadmap’s own examples are opening a bank account, taking out a phone contract and applying for a real estate lease. Phase four, in the same window, lets accredited private providers, attribute providers and exchange providers apply to join, giving people more choice of which Digital ID they use for Commonwealth services. The 26 June announcement is phases three and four getting a date.

Who regulates it, and who does what

The Digital ID Act 2024 created a regulator and a set of supporting roles, and it pays to know them because each one will show up in a business’s onboarding.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is the Digital ID Regulator. It accredits entities that provide Digital ID services, approves who participates in the government system, runs compliance and enforcement, and keeps two public registers: the Accredited Entities Register, which lists who is accredited, for what services, from when, and under what conditions, and the Australian Government Digital ID System Register, which lists who is approved to participate. If your business becomes a relying party, it will appear on the second register, and that listing is what triggers myID charging.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulates the privacy side of the system. The Office of the System Administrator runs the operational side, including testing applicants and onboarding organisations once approved. A Digital ID Data Standards Chair owns the technical standards. Accreditation itself is voluntary and continues through every phase; it is available to identity service providers, which create and manage a Digital ID, and to attribute providers.

The plumbing underneath: DVS and FVS

Whether a customer arrives with a myID or with a driver licence, the check that a document is real happens in the same place. The Document Verification Service and the Face Verification Service, run under the IDMatch programme, compare the details on an identity document, and in the case of the FVS the photo, against the record held by the agency that issued it, and return a result within seconds. They operate under the Identity Verification Services Act 2023 and an intergovernmental agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories, and the data used for a verification is encrypted and deleted once it is no longer required.

Two rules matter for a business. Organisations need a person’s express consent to verify them through these services. And any organisation with access takes on obligations to keep it, which the IDMatch site sets out in its guidance for users. This is the layer that most commercial identity verification providers already build on, and it is the reason a Digital ID from an accredited provider is worth trusting: it was established against the same records.

The rental trial: a preview of how this lands

The clearest picture of what phase three looks like in practice is the rental pilot. Biometric Update reported in October 2025 that IDverse and ConnectID had been chosen to trial Digital ID for property rentals, and on 30 June 2026 the Department of Finance declared the trial complete, “showing that it can work”. Applicants proved who they were with a Digital ID instead of handing over copies of documents, and used the Consumer Data Right to prove they could afford the rent instead of sending bank statements and payslips. The department’s summary is that it saves agents time and money while improving privacy and cybersecurity for renters.

Read that alongside the fact that real estate agents, conveyancers, lawyers and accountants have been AUSTRAC reporting entities since 1 July 2026 and must now run customer due diligence, and the appeal is obvious. A firm that accepts an accredited Digital ID verifies the client without becoming a warehouse of scanned passports, which is exactly the liability we described in our guide to choosing a KYC provider in 2026.

What it means for your business

If you verify customers today, three things change.

You get a new option, not a mandate. Digital ID is voluntary for individuals, and the roadmap is explicit that businesses can use it “as one way to verify your customers”. You will still need a path for the customer who does not have one, or who has one from a provider not connected to your flow.

Your cost model changes. Today you pay a commercial verification provider per check. From 1 January 2027 at the latest, a myID verification will also carry a per-transaction fee, at a price not yet set, invoiced in arrears. Private accredited providers will price commercially. Budget for the comparison rather than the number, because the number does not exist yet.

Your data position improves, if you design for it. The whole point of the system, in the ACCC’s words, is to reduce “the need to repeatedly share copies of your identity documents with different organisations”. A business that accepts a Digital ID and stores the verification outcome rather than the documents has less to lose in a breach and less to explain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

There is also a strategic point for anyone building a product. The government is progressing a Commonwealth verifiable credentials trust framework through 2026-27, following a successful pilot. Verifiable credentials let a person prove a specific fact, such as being over 18 or holding a licence, without revealing anything else. If your product will ever need to check an attribute rather than an identity, that framework is the one to design towards.

What to do before 1 December

Decide whether you want to be a relying party in the government system at all, or whether accepting an accredited private Digital ID through your existing verification provider is enough. The first route puts you on a public register and in scope for myID charging; the second keeps the relationship with a vendor you already have. Ask that vendor, this month, what its Digital ID roadmap is and whether it is seeking accreditation.

Map your verification flows and mark where a Digital ID could replace a document scan. Then design the fallback, because you will need one.

Write the retention rule. If a Digital ID verification returns a result and a reference, decide now that you will store those and not the images, and apply the same rule to the documents you already hold.

Put the vendor behind an interface you control. Whether the identity comes from myID, a private provider or a document scan, your application should call one internal service and receive one shaped answer. That is what makes December a configuration change rather than a rebuild, and it is the design we use on every AI integration and identity project.

And watch three dates: the 28-day fee consultation later this year, the publication of the list of high-risk services that will not accept private providers, and the liability consultation. Each one changes the business case.

If you would like help deciding which route suits your business, designing the flow, or building the integration so that it is ready on the day, book a meeting with Digital One Agency. Our AI development solutions team builds identity and onboarding systems that treat the verification vendor as a component and your data rules as the product, and we would rather you got the architecture right in October than rebuilt it in January.

Frequently asked questions

When can Australian businesses use the government Digital ID system?

The Finance Minister's 26 June 2026 announcement set 1 December 2026 as the date the Australian Government Digital ID System supports private sector participation. Businesses that join can use myID, or an approved private Digital ID provider, to verify customers.

Will businesses have to pay to use myID?

Yes. Businesses using myID as a relying party will contribute to its costs from 1 January 2027 at the latest. The government envisages a simple per-transaction fee invoiced in arrears, set after a mandatory 28-day public consultation expected later in 2026. Individuals, government services and machine-to-machine verifications are not charged, and there are no accreditation fees for now.

Who regulates Digital ID in Australia?

The ACCC is the Digital ID Regulator under the Digital ID Act 2024. It accredits providers, approves participation in the government system, enforces compliance and keeps two public registers. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulates the privacy aspects, the Office of the System Administrator runs onboarding and operations, and a Data Standards Chair owns the technical standards.

What are the DVS and FVS?

The Document Verification Service and the Face Verification Service, run under the IDMatch programme and the Identity Verification Services Act 2023, check an identity document, and for the FVS the photo, against the record held by the issuing agency and return a result in seconds. Organisations need a person's express consent to use them and take on obligations to keep access.

Is Digital ID compulsory for customers?

No. Digital ID is voluntary for individuals, and the government's roadmap describes it for businesses as one way to verify customers. A business that accepts Digital ID still needs an alternative path for people who do not have one or whose provider is not connected.

How many people and services already use the system?

As at the 26 June 2026 release, 264 government services accept a Digital ID, 155 Commonwealth and 109 state and territory, and the system handled more than 113 million authenticated transactions in the year to 30 April 2026, up from 36.5 million the year before.