Australian PM puts identity card back on agenda

CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has put national identity cards back on the agenda in the wake of the London bombings and a damning report on immigration department blunders.

Mr Howard said the controversial cards, which were rejected in 1987, should be considered as a way of better identifying Australians in the wake of the London bombings.

"This is an issue that ought to be back on the table," Mr Howard told reporters in Sydney.

"But back on the table as part of inevitably looking at everything in the wake of the terrible tragedy in London."

The call follows a highly critical report by former federal police chief Mick Palmer, which found policy developed on the run was behind a series of mix-ups which led to the mistaken detention of Australian resident Cornelia Rau and the wrongful deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who is pushing for a national ID system, said it might have prevented Ms Rau from being mistaken for an illegal immigrant and locked up for 10 months.

"I reckon there's a very strong possibility that she wouldn't have been (detained)," Mr Beattie told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

But Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the scheme would not necessarily solve flaws in the immigration system.

"The first thing you'd have to do would be to have a card that covered people who weren't citizens, permanent residents," she told the Nine Network.

Ms Vanstone spent the morning defending her department and her own role in its bungles, amid calls she should be replaced with someone from an ethnic background.

The woman at the centre of the Palmer inquiry said the immigration portfolio should be handed to someone who can empathise with foreigners.

"I just in a way believe that there should be somebody who's from an ethnic background in that job," Ms Rau told ABC radio.

"Because then they could have more of a feeling for the people who are going through such a traumatic experience."

Ms Rau said her German background had enabled her to understand what people in detention centres were going through.

But Mr Howard rejected the idea, labelling it ridiculous and absurd.

"That is a ridiculous proposition and I have no intention of appointing people according to any criterion other than individual capacity," he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Vanstone said many of the problems within her department began before she started as minister.

She said she never once contemplated stepping down.

Instead, she was determined to bring an end to the immigration department's crisis-ridden image.

"I haven't considered quitting," Ms Vanstone told Sky News.

"I think these are some long-term systemic problems.

"And I think it's very clear from what we announced yesterday, we are determined to fix any problems that are there."

- AAP