Australian Immigration Daily News

The Migration Amendment (Streamlining Visa Processing) Bill 2019 (the Bill) amends the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) to enable the Minister to specify groups of visa applicants who are required to provide one or more personal identifiers to make a valid application.

A biometric (termed ‘personal identifier’ in the Act), is a unique identifier that is based on individual physical characteristics, such as a facial image or a set of fingerprints, which can be digitised into a biometric template for automated storage and checking. Once ‘anchored‘ to a person’s biographic information, such as name, nationality and date of birth, a biometric adds significantly to verifying that a person is who they claim to be, and to linking an individual to security, law enforcement, and immigration information.

Source: Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2019.pdf and 

Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2019-Explanatory-Memorandum.pdf