Tony Abbott has thrown his support behind a national identification card for all Australians who receive government payments.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said the former prime minister had expressed his interest in the Australia Card idea when Pauline Hanson raised it with him.
"Pauline mentioned that to Tony Abbott a little while ago and Tony said 'That sounds like a good idea'," Senator Roberts told Canberra radio 2CC on Wednesday.
Senator Roberts said the identity card would include a photograph and possibly fingerprint data.
The Australia Card was first proposed by Bob Hawke's Labor government in 1985 as a way to crack down on tax avoidance and welfare fraud.
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Despite winning a double-dissolution election on the issue, Labor shelved the draft laws and the card did not go ahead.
Former Liberal prime minister John Howard also examined the idea in his final term in office and set up a government unit to deliver what was known as the Access Card.
But the unit was scrapped by the Rudd government in 2007 before the card had been rolled out.
