REVEALED: The MPs refusing to download the COVIDSafe app, despite it being Australia's ticket out of coronavirus lockdown
- At least 23 MPs and senators have refused to down the coronavirus tracing app
- This is despite the government saying it is the best way to get restrictions eased
- So far, 5.1 million ordinary Australians have heeded the call and got the app
- It uses Bluetooth to trace whether a user has been around an infected person
- The smartphone app uses encrypted profiles and doesn't log any location data
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Scores of Australian MPs are refusing to download the government's coronavirus app, despite Scott Morrison telling the public it was the best way to get restrictions eased.
COVIDSafe launched on April 26 and has so far been downloaded by 5.1 million Australians, desperate to get the country back up and running after the pandemic.
But some publicly-elected officials are refusing to set an example and download the app themselves, which does not hold or pass on any of a user's personal data.
This reportedly includes at least three of the Coalition's own MPs, the National Party's Barnaby Joyce, Liberal National Party of Queensland's Llew O'Brien and Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
Only one Green MP, South Australia's Sarah Hanson-Young, has downloaded the app, while the party's controversial leader called it 'concerning'.
Adam Bandt (pictured on Australia Day this year) is the leader of the Greens and has refused to download the government's COVID-19 tracing app
Green members are understood to not trust the government on data security, despite the app using an encrypted user ID, which regenerates every two hours, and not logging any location data.
It means neither a user's whereabouts nor activities will be tracked, with all data deleted after 21 days.
The app is not mandatory, but the government hopes that high usage of the contact tracing technology could mean lockdown is eased sooner than expected.
The prime minister, alongside Health Minister Greg Hunt, said they are hoping that a 40 per cent uptake could help officials trace and track any future COVID-19 cases.
Finding the close contacts of confirmed cases is key to stopping the spread of the disease, and opening up Australia - including bars, restaurants and state borders.
National Party MP Barnaby Joyce (pictured, left ) has not downloaded the app, and neither has Liberal MP Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (right)
COVIDSafe (pictured) has so far been downloaded five million times, but there needs to be a greater uptake, the government said
Members of both One Nation and the Greens have expressed their concerns over the app, while the vast majority of Coalition and Labor members have already downloaded it, according to ABC.
The Greens slammed the app as a 'shameful disregard for privacy' when it launched last month.
They even accused the government of turning Australia into a 'surveillance state'.
‘If the government wants people to use this app, they need to put protections in law beforehand,’ Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP, said.
'People have very legitimate concerns about how the data will be used and where it will be stored.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi (pictured, left) has also not yet downloaded the app while the member for White Bay, Llew O'Brien (right) said he would now consider getting it
‘The reported storage of the data by a US company raises real concerns. When it comes to privacy, if there’s one person I trust less than Peter Dutton, it’s Donald Trump.
‘We all want the lockdown to end, but something like this needs to be done properly because the stakes are too high. Once it’s out, the genie can’t be put back in the bottle.’
The Greens told Daily Mail Australia the party was 'open-minded about the app' but were concerned it didn't work properly on iPhones, which the majority of its MPs have.
Since then, the government has revealed proposed laws surrounding the app and people's privacy and liberties.
There could be a five year prison sentence if a person is caught collecting, using or disclosing information collected by the app, except by public health officials.
Businesses who ban people from entry unless they have downloaded the app also face five years in jail and a $63,000 fine.
The measures were part of a draft released by the government this week.
Mr O'Brien, who is a Coalition backbencher, told ABC he would consider downloading the app after the government's legislation was unveiled.
The small number of Labor MPs yet to get the app said they would do so once the legislation was passed.
Patrick Dodson lives in remote Western Australia, but said he will download the app when he is next in Broome - the nearest town with stable reception.
But Greens leader Mr Brandt, 47, from inner-city Melbourne, is ardently opposed to the government.
Australia's coronavirus tracing app has so far been downloaded five million times (pictured, a woman uses her mobile phone while walking at Bondi Beach on April 3)
The anti-coal zealot once called for the overthrow of capitalism, and has used his platform to advocate higher taxes, more welfare and the end of Australia's most lucrative industries.
Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has said if privacy breaches are found in the app, any politician who supported it should resign.
A vocal critic of the app, he said on Monday: 'I just am not confident in the Bluetooth capacity and I will test other people's confidence.
'If you give a raving endorsement of it that's your choice and if it does leak, do you now instantly resign your position - whatever that is - because you can't stand behind your warrant?
'I bet you will find that all the senior officers in this land will not say, "I will resign from office if we find out there is a leak" - and there is your answer.'
To run the COVIDSafe app, users have to agree to turn their battery optimization off - meaning they cannot try and use a power saving mode
Both the Singaporean version and Australia's own COVIDSafe use Bluetooth to connect with nearby phones to determine who a person has been into close contact with.
It means that if a user later tests positive for COVID-19, officials can easily find out who else may be at risk.
But the Greens Digital Rights spokesperson Nick McKim also criticised the app, citing the government's 'terrible track record of undermining privacy and IT blunders.'
'This government has repeatedly failed to ensure the security of data it has collected, and has made an art form of deliberately releasing people’s sensitive personal information to media outlets for political gain,' Senator McKim said.
'Peter Dutton has been dreaming of a surveillance state in Australia for years, and this app, without protections, takes him one step closer.'
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