West Australians impacted by last week's Optus data breach will now be able to have their drivers licence re-issued with a new number, free of charge.
Up until today, technical limitations meant WA was the only state where people kept their licence numbers for life.
But in the wake of the breach, Premier Mark McGowan said work was underway on a system to issue fresh numbers.
"People have lost their drivers licences and their identity through no fault of their own, so we'll provide a new drivers licence with a new number as soon as we can get the system up and operational.
"I expect that will be quite quick."
The inability to issue new licence numbers has long been a headache for West Australians, because once leaked, it left scammers with a "golden ticket" to commit all kinds of fraud.
Government to seek reimbursement from Optus
But Mr McGowan said he was not sure if people other than those affected by the Optus hack could be given new numbers.
"I was unaware of these issues until last night, it's not something that's really front of people's minds," he said.
"We're going to make sure with the Optus customers we deal with it, if we have to deal with it more broadly we will."
The Premier said once the scheme was set up, people would be able to go to driver's licensing centres with information to prove their identity to get a fresh licence.
He said the government was still waiting for information from Optus on how many West Australians had been affected, and would seek reimbursement from the telco.
"Whatever it costs us, we'll be seeking reimbursement from Optus," Mr McGowan said.
