Australian state of Victoria kicks off digital birth certificate pilot

After New South Wales, the Australian state of Victoria is also introducing digital birth certificates, enabling parents to view and share their child’s documents from a mobile wallet app.

The digital birth certificate will first be trialled for enrolling children into kindergarten in three council areas, according to the Victorian government. Parents can add the digital document to the Service Victoria app, which currently offers more than 170 government services, including the veterans card, seniors card, digital driver’s licence, and more.

“This is all part of our digitisation agenda – updating how government works so that Victorians can use services more easily and more efficiently,” says  Victoria’s Minister for Government Services, Danny Pearson.

Aside from a Service Victoria account, parents will need to submit an original paper copy of the birth certificate and two additional IDs, such as a driver’s licence, passport, or Medicare card. Once a digital birth certificate appears in the app, parents can show it to kindergarten staff, who will scan the certificate’s QR code through their own Service Victoria app.

The government notes that the information will remain secure. The platform obtains data from the Births, Deaths and Marriages register and sends it straight to the user’s phone.

“You’ve got to have a passcode to access your Service Victoria wallet and it sits there securely,” explains Minister Pearson.

Digital birth certificates will remain optional. Currently, only children born on or after February 19th, 2019, are eligible to receive the digital document, according to a government release.

NSW’s digital birth certificate journey

Victoria is still catching up to New South Wales (NSW), which has been offering digital birth certificates since 2024 and recently announced it would expand availability to people between the ages of 16 and 21.

The state first announced its plan for digital birth certificates in 2021. The case for digital birth certificates was clear, according to Victor Dominello, CEO of Future Government Institute and former NSW Customer Service Minister.

Australians apply for more than half a million replacement birth certificates every year, 120,000 of which are in NSW alone. While some documents simply get lost or damaged, others lose their birth certificates in natural disasters or while fleeing partner violence, delaying much-needed access to essential services such as healthcare and employment.

“These are not abstract numbers. They translate into stress, delay and cost for families,” Dominello explained in a post on LinkedIn in November last year.

To introduce the digital document, the NSW government designed their solutions for identity proofing, cryptography and digital signing, verifiable credentials, system integration with legacy registries, cybersecurity, privacy and user experience. At the same time, the team ensured the proper legislation and regulations as well as interoperability across jurisdictions.

The work resulted in all states and territories signing a national communiqué committing to a national Digital Birth Certificate, notes Dominello.

“NSW was asked to lead much of the technical work because we had the digital capability and the Service NSW platform already in people’s pockets,” he says.

The prototype was presented in 2023, relying on W3C verifiable credentials and selective disclosure. Users could choose what is shared, with whom, and for how long, while the credential expires automatically after use.

A pilot for newborns using a standalone app was launched the following year, attracting more than 1,400 users and covering over 18,000 newborns. Last year, parents received an option to store multiple children’s digital birth certificates in the Service NSW app.

National recognition is the missing piece, concludes Dominell. The ultimate goal should be that all jurisdictions provide an option for a digital birth certificate that will be recognized and accepted across borders and industry alike.

Article Topics

Australia  |  birth registration  |  digital birth certificate  |  digital ID  |  government services  |  identity document  |  Victoria