Australia has no national ID card. Twice in the past 25 years a national ID card has been proposed by the federal government, and twice it has been rejected after concerted campaigns by privacy advocates and many others.  The first was the "Australia Card", proposed by the Labor Government in 1985 and ultimately dropped in 1987.  The second was the "Access Card", proposed by a Coalition (conservative) Government in 2006, and abandoned as policy in 2007.  In both cases legislation had already been tabled in Parliament.

For a history of the Access Card campaign see  


http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/HSAC.html

For a history of the Australia Card campaign, see


http://privacy.org.au/About/Formation.html

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/law/identitycards.htm