A function of the Check In Queensland app that allows other people's vaccination certificates to be uploaded is not a flaw, according to Minister for Digital Economy Leanne Enoch.
Concerns were raised last week that the function would allow unvaccinated people to fraudulently claim someone else's vaccination certificate as their own.
Today Ms Enoch defended the app, saying such an act of fraud would be "incredibly difficult" to carry out.
"That function of the app [is] to be able to ensure that you can show that your children or your partner is also vaccinated," Ms Enoch said.
She said this was "no flaw" in the app.
"If you're giving away your personal details to somebody else, for purposes that are not fit for, then what you're actually doing is conducting fraud and identity theft … and that's illegal.
"We've included these functions to make it easier to be able to prove vaccination and we've been working with the federal government on being able to link those vaccination certificates to that app.
"We are always trying to ensure that people don't conduct illegal activity … if they are caught there will be a fine and the fine is very hefty.
“I would not encourage anybody to be giving away their identity, their personal details and of course, their log-on details to random people. You are exposing yourself to all kinds of other vulnerabilities if you start giving away those private details."
Ms Enoch said similar apps were being used in the ACT, Northern Territory and Tasmania, with the special feature added to make it easier to prove vaccination status.
Three COVID cases in quarantine, exposure sites at Brisbane Airport
No new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the Queensland community, but three cases have emerged in hotel quarantine among people arriving from interstate.
As a result, acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken said there were several exposure sites at Brisbane Airport.
"If you've been in any of those venues and that's the gates that they arrived, the luggage carousel or the bathrooms, please just come forward and get tested," Dr Aitken said.
"That's the big ask at the moment."
Dr Aitken said there were "fewer than 10 people" in Queensland hotel quarantine — either in Brisbane or on the Gold Coast — who had travelled to Australia from one of the nine southern African countries carrying the Omicron COVID variant.
He said none of those people had tested positive to COVID.
Australian states and territories yesterday reinstated border rules in response to the new Omicron strain, which was first identified in southern Africa and has since been detected in several countries around the world.
