"Government industry experts have suggested that the cost will be more than A$1 billion and even the head of the smartcard taskforce has resigned due to a lack of confidence in the project," he said.

"The KPMG report came up with a figure of A$2.3 billion to implement the smartcard which is vastly more than what the government is saying.

"The government is rushing ahead without considering public acceptance and there are myriad unanswered questions," Thomson said.

Thomson hopes the current tendering process will answer some of those questions.

He said scope creep will be the biggest problem and determine if the rollout will be a worthwhile exercise.