The business case for the Australian government's health and social services Access Card, built on smartcard technology, has been stalled by the refusal of Human Services Minister Joe Hockey to release the Privacy Impact Assessment report, which legal firm Clayton Utz prepared.

Additionally, the business case, produced by KPMG LLP, will only be released when KPMG removes "commercially sensitive material."

In a Senate budget Estimates Committee held last week, Geoffrey Leeper, deputy secretary of the Department of Human Services, said he had initially hoped the PIA would be finished on February 9; however, the document needed to be reviewed, "because the business model in the business case had moved as [the report] was being finalized."

Graham Bashford, deputy chief executive officer (CEO) at Centrelink, told the hearing that KPMG has been charged with releasing the business case for access card development and will do so "as soon as possible."

Leeper said Minister Hockey has indicated aspects of the report needed to be removed "in order not to confer commercial benefit on potential tenderers."