Rejected Turnbull's permanent email addresses

Was woken up this morning by a call from the Nova radio network asking about a proposal from Malcolm Turnbull MP, for citizens to be issued a permanent email address by government. They wanted a quick comment so I did an interview right then and there (while still half asleep). I said it was an idea which had been discussed about ten years ago and rejected due to problems with Spam, but there may be some merit in having an directory for official email.

I couldn't find anything about it on Mr. Turnbull's web site, but there were several news items, such as: Turnbull seeks lifelong 'pigeonholes' for all, ABC News Online, September 9, 2005. 10:50am (AEST):

Federal Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull has called for the Government to give every Australian their own email address for life.

The emails would be used by Government agencies to keep in touch with people, or they could be used by long-lost friends.

He has suggested the address could be: firstname.surname.dateofbirth@australia.org.au. ...

I recall discussing something like this ten years ago back in the heady days when the Internet was going to be free.