The list of Government services available on myGov continues to expand with the availability of digital Commonwealth statutory declarations. Image: myGov.
The days of running around town trying to find a Justice of the Peace to witness a Commonwealth statutory declaration may soon be over if a new government plan to be able to complete the legal documents online is successfully realised.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced on 12 February that Australians can now create a Commonwealth statutory declaration in a new digital process in their myGov app without requiring an approved witness by using their Australian Government Digital ID to verify the identification of the person making the declaration.
The move to myGov statutory declarations has been enabled by changes that came into effect on 1 January that gave Australians more choice in how they create these legal documents.
The changes will allow Australians to complete a Commonwealth statutory declaration in three valid and legally effective forms: through the myGov platform and myGov ID Digital ID, digitally using electronic signatures and video-link witnessing, or through the traditional paper-based method.
The government says digital statutory declarations could save more than $156 million each year, hundreds of thousands of hours, simplify government services and be a productivity winner for the private sector.
It says Australians spend an estimated 9 million hours each year executing and processing more than 3.8 million strictly paper-based statutory declarations, which were required to be witnessed in person and signed in ink.
Now, the myGov app will step people through the process of using their Digital ID to verify who they are to create and electronically sign their digital statutory declaration which, when completed, is downloaded for printing or sharing.
The digital declarations will also include a unique QR code that can be scanned using the myGov app, allowing organisations to check the authenticity of a document they’ve received.
The process will require a person to sign into myGov and press Continue with Digital Identity. After entering your email address, you will be given a four-digit code, which you will use with your password, fingerprint or face to log into the myGovID app.
After entering the usual address, occupation, email and/or phone number, it will ask you to enter the declaration with each paragraph numbered and written in the first person.
After that, you review, sign, tick a couple of checkboxes, and save it as a PDF for printing or sending. The location where the declaration is being made is also included.
More information on Commonwealth Statutory Declarations can be found at https://www.ag.gov.au/legal-system/statutory-declarations. Information on how to create a digital stat dec in myGov is available at www.my.gov.au/statdec.
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