Parliament explores access management system upgrade

The Department of Parliamentary Services is exploring ways to improve the security and speed of visitor access to parliament, with a club-like entry system among options being explored.

At senate estimates on Monday, chief information officer James Lawson confirmed the existence of a project to upgrade parliament’s card management system.

“We’re working very closely with our colleagues in the security branch on capabilities for that system, including guest access or sign-in access,” Lawson said.

“We’re also looking at some of the characteristics of the current system … around the time it takes to swipe a card and enter the building, noting that the technology that we use at the moment is very secure. 

“There’s a range of different technologies out there in the card management and the access space but we’re exploring as part of a project at the moment.”

The department faced questions from Victorian Labor senator Jana Stewart over the management of access cards to parliament, particularly when staff ceased working for a parliamentarian.

The questioning also covered the use of paper-based visitor security cards, which Lawson, together with the department’s secretary Rob Stefanic said were under review.

“They’re not ideal and we are currently looking at a replacement system for those,” Stefanic said.

“The idea would be to automate a lot more of it so that the registration process is a lot faster and also I presume it would result in a printout that would be applied to some sort of medium that would be a bit more durable than the paper that they currently get.”

A greater use of automation could also reduce queuing for entry on parliamentary sitting days, he said.

“As you would’ve seen on a sitting day, the queueing is already a little bit tricky, which is another reason why the current system is a little bit slow,” Stefanic said.

“Obviously systems that are used by clubs and that process people a lot quicker [are] one of those systems we’re looking at, and they usually use ID as a method of processing. 

“So there are systems out there - it’s just coming up with something that works with our policies.”