A Paul Kelly concert, date night at that new Japanese restaurant, or even a family holiday to Bali – a COVID-19 vaccination certificate could soon be used to unlock them all.

State and federal governments are still mulling over the exact freedoms that fully vaccinated Australians will get to enjoy before their non-vaccinated peers, but everything from entry to large sporting events and exemptions from harsh lockdowns is on the table.

“There are discussions that are being had to try and seek to have some uniformity about how exemptions might apply to vaccinated persons at a state and territory level, because that’s the only place those exemptions can be provided,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday.

“States and territories put in place public health restrictions, and if they’re to afford exemptions to those restrictions, well, then they are the ones who have to do that.”

Mr Morrison said the COVID-19 vaccination certificate was a “credible and effective and an easily usable” way for states to administer the exemptions.

And so The New Daily has broken down how to access yours once you have received both doses.

Proving you’ve been vaccinated

Getting your COVID-19 vaccination certificate is straightforward.

For Australians who have had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine – either Pfizer or AstraZeneca – an immunisation certificate will be automatically generated if your Medicare account is linked with your MyGov account.

If you’ve only had one jab, it will say so on your MyGov account.

Once you’ve had both shots, the account will automatically generate your certificate.

The certificate can be downloaded to a smartphone and used in a similar fashion to a digital driver’s licence.

It features a coat-of-arms hologram and includes the holder’s name, date of birth and a ‘validity tick’.

You will not be required to share information about non-COVID vaccinations or other health data when flashing your certificate.

You can easily add the vaccination certificate to your Apple Wallet or Google Pay digital wallets by opening your MyGov account on your smartphone and going through these simple steps:

• Select Medicare
• Select ‘View statement’ on your immunisation history page
• Select your name, and then view COVID-19 digital certificate
• Select either Add to Apple Wallet or Save to phone for Google Pay.

If you use the Express Plus Medicare app, the steps are:

• Select ‘Immunisation history’ from Services
• Select your name, and then View COVID-19 digital certificate
• Select either ‘Add to Apple Wallet’ or ‘Save to phone’ for Google Pay.

When launching the certificate in June, Minister for Government Services Linda Reynolds said the record made it easy for people to show their coronavirus vaccination status “anytime, anywhere”.

“We’re also giving people control over the level of vaccination history they share, as the certificate only shows your COVID-19 vaccination status,” Ms Reynolds said.

Certificate needs work, AMA says

Australia is already leaps and bounds ahead of other countries because it has a national immunisation register, Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said.

But he said the COVID-19 vaccine certificate system needs work.

“We have a good system in terms of the national register. By law, doctors have to put immunisation on there,” he told The New Daily. 

“The good news is we have the back end. The bit that is unclear is displaying it.”

The new COVID-19 vaccine certificate could be useful for certain workforces, but there are issues with rolling it out more broadly, Dr Moy said.

“There are major issues about the ability to replicate it, how to link it to the person carrying it, and how it lines up with what’s being used overseas,” he said.

Mr Morrison has flagged the vaccine certificate will get an overhaul in October.