OFFICIAL
The Hon Stuart Robert MP
Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Minister for Government Services
Ref: MS20-000022
The Hon Scott Morrison MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Prime Minister
I am writing to provide an update on our work with Apple and Google on their Exposure
Notification Framework (ENF) and its relationship to the Australian Government’s
COVIDSafe contact tracing application, as well as our approach to stopping the spread of
COVID-19 more broadly.
Our Government’s centralised, government-led approach to contact tracing has helped to
manage the spread of COVID-19 in Australia. This approach relies heavily on our world-class
public health infrastructure and expertise. The introduction of the COVIDSafe app has
complemented manual contact tracing conducted by trained health officials. It supports the
central role of health officials in tracking and notifying close contacts. This approach is
underpinned by legislation and strong privacy and security controls to assure Australians that
their information is being used sensibly and carefully, and only to further public health
outcomes.
In the six weeks since its launch, more than 6.2 million Australians have registered for the
COVIDSafe app. This represents one of the fastest uptakes of global tracing apps. The Digital
Transformation Agency (DTA) continues to improve COVIDSafe’s technology and operation,
including stronger data encryption and improvements to Bluetooth performance. The DTA is
continuously investigating technologies that can enhance COVIDSafe, particularly Bluetooth
performance.
On 20 May 2020, Apple and Google released the initial version of the ENF. Apple and Google
claim that the ENF will improve Bluetooth performance by enabling a device’s operating
system to natively record close encounters rather than through an app such as COVIDSafe. The
DTA is working to validate this claim through testing of the Bluetooth functionality. Results of
this testing are expected in the next week. These results will form one component of an overall
decision on whether Australia should adopt the ENF.
Apple and Google have indicated that the ENF’s decentralised contact tracing model can only
be adopted in its entirety (that is, the operating model changes must be adopted in addition to
any Bluetooth improvements). The ENF allows users to remain anonymous, meaning that close
contacts cannot be identified nor contacted by a health official directly. Instead, blanket push
notifications are used to alert any close contacts to a potential exposure to COVID-19.
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
OFFICIAL
