TOTT News

Australia’s leading privacy and civil liberties organisations have condemned the decision by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to provide all images from state and territory driver’s licence databases to a national facial biometric capability system.

The organisations, including the Australian Privacy Foundation, Digital Rights Watch, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria, South Australian Council for Civil Liberties and Electronic Frontiers Australia, have called the comprehensive facial recognition database ‘unnecessary’ and ‘fundamentally incompatible with a free and open society’.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has assured Australians that national facial biometric matching capability would “only bring existing arrangements into real time”, after the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a suite of new ‘anti-terrorism’ measures yesterday.

As the mainstream establishment continues to dismiss privacy concerns of advocates across the country, Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman seemingly showed no reserve in support of the overhaul, declaring “we live in very uncertain times” and “this is the new world order”.

Public transport commuters in Queensland will be able ‘to use their faces as a ticket to board trains and buses’ in the near future, after it was announced on Thursday that trials will commence to replace the current ‘Go Card’ digital network with facial recognition technology.

Cubic Corporation, the company initially behind the ‘Go Card’, will trial the use of biometric identification technology to enable passengers to pay their fares in a ‘seamless, efficient way’, with card-operated gates to eventually be replaced by machines which scan an individual’s eyes or the unique pattern of veins in the palm of their hand.

We can all see that our beloved nation is in deep trouble and we cannot solve a problem using the same thinking that created that problem in the first place. We must identify the root cause of our problems and treat the disease, not just the individual symptoms. We must also be radically realistic in identifying, naming and solving our problems.

In the following opinion piece, Moses Apostaticus explains the need for a root and branch restoration of the nation of Australia.

After days of destruction and continued media coverage in Australia, Hurricane Irma has now dissipated in most regions, leaving evacuated citizens from states such as Florida sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to head home and face monumental cleanups.

In the following opinion piece, Ethan Nash takes a look back at how the ABC has covered the discussion, where climate change fits into the equation, and some of the evidence from government departments refuting claims by the media.

It has been revealed this week that thousands of Australian buildings possess the same ‘flammable cladding’ materials seen in the Grenfell fire in London, with body corporate organisations calling on the Federal Government to take preventative action as a result.

Could the solution to ‘Australia’s building crisis’ be right under our noses?

Queensland’s Privacy Commissioner has raised concerned over plans to use facial recognition technology to identify suspected ‘terrorists’ during the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018.

Biometric identification technology is set to be deployed on the Gold Coast public transport network early next year, including trains, trams and buses at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, to identify potential ‘terror suspects’ before they can interrupt the proceedings.

Australia’s Customs and Border Protection will install 92 facial recognition terminals in international airports as part of an $18 million deal to replace passports with a “contactless” biometric identification system.

The program will see all international passengers processed by biometric recognition of the face, iris or fingerprints, incoming paper passenger cards abolished, and manned stations replaced by electronic stations and automatic triage.

Parents have been told their concerns about privacy are ‘unwarranted’ after being advised children as young as five will have their fingerprints scanned at school as part of a controversial new biometric student attendance record-keeping program being introduced across Australia.

The system, an adaptation of previous programs that were suspended by the government due to privacy concerns, will allow students to register they are at school by placing their finger on a pad.

The Victorian government has announced the introduction of legislation aimed at permanently banning the development of unconventional gas explorations throughout the state, including coal seam gas and fracking, in an unprecedented victory for campaigners across Australia.

The legislation, the first of its kind in the country, will be introduced into state parliament later this year, and will be aimed at protecting Victoria’s agriculture sector and alleviating farmers’ concerns about environmental and health risks associated with hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.