Queensland Is Scrapping Gender From All Driver’s Licences

Queensland driver's licences will no longer list gender, after the state government reportedly received a number of complaints from the LGBTI community.

According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), the move follows the introduction of new anti-discrimination legislation and improvements to the collection of information, and will also apply to marine licences.

"The primary drivers for the changes were amendments to the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act in 2013 and improvement to biometric imaging and facial recognition technologies that made much of the information previously collected redundant for identification purposes," a TMR spokesperson said.

In the new format, eye colour, hair colour and height will also be removed from Queensland licenses, however personal information would still be collected and provided to police if required.

"TMR continues to collect and record information on gender when a person applies for a licence," the spokesperson added.

"This information continues to be available to police through technological advances.

"For example, police have 24-7 access to this information, including the digital photograph as it appears on the licence, through QLite tablet devices."

TMR has advised that other jurisdictions are making similar changes, which first came into effect in Queensland in October 2016.

According to an internal government document obtained by The Courier Mail, members of the LGBTIQ community also complained for the removed of the “discriminatory” information.

“TMR has received complaints and suggestions from members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community about displaying gender/sex (M or F) on TMR cards,” the document reportedly stated.