AG: No invasion of privacy with new licence plates

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi has declared that the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Amendment Bill 2019, does not infringe anyone's right to privacy. Al-Rawi said this in response to a claim from Opposition Senator Wade Mark, as he concluded debate on he bill in the Senate on Wednesday. The bill was later passed with amendments.

Earlier in the sitting, Mark asked what information could public officials acquire from the radio frequency identification (RF) identification tag, which will be affixed to vehicles' licence plates under the legislation.

"An RF tag ID is not a GPS tag," Al-Rawi said. He also said it is well known that such tags have been used on vehicles in many countries such as the United States without any issues. Al-Rawi said it is also public knowledge that the use of these tags were discussed by the previous Patrick Manning and Kamla Persad-Bissessar administrations.

As Speaker of the House of Representatives under the Persad-Bissessar government, Al-Rawi said Mark knew that one of the projects championed by Persad-Bissessar in her prime ministerial tenure was "the birthing of the National Operations Centre (NOC)."

He continued that Mark would also know that the NOC used facial recognition software as part of its national security operations. Al-Rawi also said, "In so far as you are on the road, in your motor vehicle, you are doing that by virtue of a licence to be on the road."

While a person has the right of freedom of movement under the Constitution, Al-Rawi said "your movement in your constitutional construct and our statutory arrangement with the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act is circumscribed by it being a licence to drive."

Responding to a claim from Opposition Senator Saddam Hosein that TT's courts were in shambles, Al-Rawi reminded senators that under the Persad-Bissessar government, the maintenance contract for the Judiciary was cancelled.

He said all things being equal, by the end of June, Government would have opened 125 courts in TT.