Kmart’s facial recognition tech breached privacy, commissioner finds
Josh Taylor
Retail giant Kmart breached Australians’ privacy through the use of facial recognition technology in 28 of its stores, which the company said was aimed at addressing refund fraud.
Between June 2020 and July 2022, Kmart used facial recognition tech to capture the faces of every person entering 28 of its stores, and all people who went to a refund counter, in an attempt to identify people committing refund fraud.
The privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, found Kmart did not notify shoppers or seek their consent to use the technology to collect their biometric information.
Kmart argued it was not required to obtain consent because of an exemption allowing organisations to collect the information to tackle unlawful activity or serious misconduct.
The commissioner said there were other less intrusive methods available to Kmart to address refund fraud, and the system was of “limited utility”.
Key events
Dan Jervis-Bardy
PM to unveil 2035 emissions reduction target at 12pm
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will unveil Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target at 12pm in Sydney.
Cabinet met to sign off on the announcement on Thursday, with Labor caucus also briefed.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will also stand up at the press conference.
ANU’s interim vice-chancellor will not ask Julie Bishop to resign
Brown said she will not ask the university’s chancellor, Julie Bishop, to step down.
Last week, Bishop vowed to stay on as chancellor after Prof Genevieve Bell tendered her resignation, ending a tumultuous two years at the institution marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture.
In a staff question at the town hall, Brown was told the university had “no confidence” in any plan moving forward while Bishop remained in her role, with the questioner asking: “If the university is serious about rebuilding trust, will you commit to asking the chancellor to step down?”
Brown replied “the short answer is no”, going on:
It’s not the interim or vice-chancellor’s prerogative to ask a chancellor or any member of council to step down, that is a decision for council … I have no aspirations [or] intentions to change the existing leadership team. The university leadership group is over 70 members of our staff.
Many of her answers were met with applause from the crowd, but this one was met with a beat of silence.
Caitlin Cassidy
Interim vice-chancellor of ANU says ‘we will do better’
The interim vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU), Prof Rebekah Brown, says there will be a “different type of communication” after the exit of Prof Genevieve Bell and she will “expect better” from management going forward.
Brown is responding to questions at an all staff town hall at ANU. Pointed to the fact the university’s restructure had “demonstrably caused harm” at the university and what accountability would look like going forward, Brown said it was “her job” to take responsibility as ANU’s interim leader.
She also apologised for the harm caused by a “confusing email” in recent weeks that led staff to believe there would be no further involuntary redundancies, which was inaccurate at the time. Brown said:
We are going to be having a different type of communication. That is really significant. I’d say also that what we can do is be better going forward, act differently going forward. So what I can say is that at least under my interim leadership, we will do better. I’ll expect better.
Brown also said ANU would also do a stocktake of its finances and “be transparent” with its community. She said the university’s model going forward would be to rely on its own people before employing the use of consultants.
Shares in Santos sink after takeover bid withdrawn
Jonathan Barrett
Shares in oil and gas producer Santos have fallen more than 10% this morning, after an Abu Dhabi-led consortium withdrew its $30bn takeover bid for the Adelaide-headquartered company.
XRG, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, was required to submit a binding proposal by Friday after lodging an indicative bid in mid-June.
It withdrew its offer last night.
The proposal was expected to receive significant scrutiny from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which provides advice to the treasurer.
Santos shares are now priced below $7, which is around the same level they traded at before the June bid.
Takeovers generally lead to a spike in the target’s share price given most buyers need to pay a premium to secure control of another company.
Caitlin Cassidy
No further job cuts at ANU sends ‘powerful message’ to Australia’s universities, union says
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says “every university staff member” facing job cuts around the nation can “take heart” from the Australian National University’s announcement that there will be no forced redundancies.
Its ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, said the interim vice-chancellor, Prof Rebekah Brown, deserved credit for “reading the room accurately” on the issue. The announcement at a town hall this morning came just a week after the exit of former vice-chancellor, Prof Genevieve Bell.
Clohesy said the university’s restructure process, Renew ANU, had “damaged the university and its people”:
It has broken the University. While there is work to do, we can now start to pick up the pieces. Today demonstrates that much of the pain and psychological damage of recent times was not necessary. I hope that leadership at UTS is taking note of what has happened at the ANU.
NTEU national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said the announcement sent a “powerful message” to “all vice-chancellors pursuing reckless and unjustified cuts” and pointed to the need for major governance reform.
The town hall is continuing, with staff waiting to ask questions of Brown.
No more job cuts at Australian National University and School of Music saved, town hall meeting reveals
Caitlin Cassidy
There will be no more involuntary redundancies at the Australian National University, the interim vice-chancellor, Prof Rebekah Brown, has confirmed.
Briefing staff at a town hall meeting on Thursday morning, Brown became emotional before confirming she and the chancellor had supported no more involuntary redundancies at the institution.
She said the university would still need to do realignments and consolidate its professional services in colleges flagged for restructures, saying:
We still need to be really mindful of our expenditure. It’s critical. What I would like to say also is that the other four colleges that are not listed here in these change proposals, they’ve been able to meet their 2025 budgetary targets, which were all contractions as well through vacancy management retirements [and] attritions.
Brown said an “anonymous donor” had also offered a generous philanthropic gift in order to continue the Australian National Dictionary Centre for the next two years. The School of Music will also be saved, Brown confirmed.
Patrick Commins
Migration and jobs numbers to be released today
While the government’s announcement of its 2035 emissions reduction target will rightly dominate our collective attention, today we also get new figures on another increasingly hot button issue: migration.
The ABS at 11.30am will release estimated population stats for the March quarter.
Net overseas migration (or Nom) was 340,750 in the year to December, and it reached a remarkable peak of nearly 556,000 in the year to September 2023 – a rebound from the Covid-era lockdowns and closed borders.
In the few years leading up to the pandemic net overseas migration averaged about 240,000 people a year.
Today’s data should show Nom slowing again, but perhaps not as quickly as Treasury officials have forecast in the budget.
And if that wasn’t enough, the ABS will also publish labour force figures for July.
Unemployment has been in the low 4s for more than a year now, and the consensus forecast among economists is for the jobless rate to stay at 4.2% – good news that will probably keep it out of the headlines.
Josh Taylor
More from the privacy commissioner’s findings on Kmart’s use of facial recognition tech
Kind found that the collection of biometric information was a disproportionate interference with privacy. The privacy commissioner considered the estimated value of fraudulent returns against Kmart’s total operations and profits as part of the evaluation.
Kind said:
I do not consider that the respondent (Kmart) could have reasonably believed that the benefits of the FRT system in addressing refund fraud proportionately outweighed the impact on individuals’ privacy.
Hardware giant Bunnings is now challenging a 2024 privacy commissioner ruling over its use of facial recognition technology in the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Kmart was approached for comment.
Kmart’s facial recognition tech breached privacy, commissioner finds
Josh Taylor
Retail giant Kmart breached Australians’ privacy through the use of facial recognition technology in 28 of its stores, which the company said was aimed at addressing refund fraud.
Between June 2020 and July 2022, Kmart used facial recognition tech to capture the faces of every person entering 28 of its stores, and all people who went to a refund counter, in an attempt to identify people committing refund fraud.
The privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, found Kmart did not notify shoppers or seek their consent to use the technology to collect their biometric information.
Kmart argued it was not required to obtain consent because of an exemption allowing organisations to collect the information to tackle unlawful activity or serious misconduct.
The commissioner said there were other less intrusive methods available to Kmart to address refund fraud, and the system was of “limited utility”.
‘I don’t know that Australians can trust this government’, Ley says before release of emissions targets
Ley is holding another press conference ahead of the release of the Albanese government’s emissions reduction targets.
She said:
I’m happy to explain as I often do to Australians that we do take climate action seriously, we believe that Australia should play its part in reducing emissions, but not at any cost.
I’m listening to what Australians say and they’re telling me how expensive it to run their households, run their businesses, employ more people, to actually conduct life, business, and the next generation in an economy where their living standards are going backwards …
Cost and credibility are the two important standards for this government to meet. Because we need to be able to – I don’t know that Australians can – trust this government.
Luca Ittimani
When Ziggy’s bond was withheld after eviction without cause from his Sydney rental, he challenged it – and won
Ziggy Tow and his housemates thought they had had enough trouble after their property manager evicted them without grounds and listed their inner-Sydney home for an extra $300 a week.
Then the property manager claimed back all of the $3,400 they paid in bond to cover cleaning and repair fees.
It took three months of disputes before New South Wales’ rent tribunal ruled the claim was nearly triple a justified amount, awarding $2,100 to the housemates, who Tow said live “paycheck to paycheck”.
“I spoke to a lot of people who [said] ‘I would have just left it’,” Tow said.
A growing number of tenants are losing some or all of their bond after their leases expire in Australia’s biggest housing markets, as surging rents and other living costs pressure households, analysis of public data has found.
Read more here:
Sydney Water names new chief executive
The NSW government announced Darren Cleary as the new chief executive of Sydney Water this morning, nearly six months after the surprise departure of the agency’s managing director, Roch Cheroux.
Cleary has been the chief executive of Hunter Water since 2020, where he improved water security for the region through an investment in a desalination plant and the creation of the lower Hunter water security plan, Sydney Water said.
Rose Jackson, the NSW water minister, said in a statement:
As a trusted public face with a wealth of experience, the future of Sydney Water as a reliable, sustainable, customer-focused organisation is in good hands with Darren.
Cleary will begin his role on 17 November.
Andrew Messenger
Second Queensland coalminer announces job losses
A second Queensland coalminer has announced job losses, just a day after BHP announced 750 job cuts and the closure of a mine.
On Thursday, Anglo American Australia vice-president of people and corporate relations, Ben Mansour, said the company had slashed roles. It’s expected that more than 200 roles will be made redundant, many of them in Brisbane.
The BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance yesterday blamed the state’s royalties scheme for plans to mothball its Saraji South coalmine. Anglo American did not cite royalties in its Thursday announcement.
Anglo American is the country’s second largest steelmaker, operating five mines in central Queensland, including the region’s largest, the Grosvenor underground mine. Grosvenor closed as a result of an explosion last year and staff started the process of reopening in June.
Mansour said the company had undertaken a comprehensive review of its organisational structure to ensure the long-term sustainability of our business:
As part of this review, a small number of staff roles across our Brisbane office and operational sites have been impacted. A substantial proportion of reductions have been achieved through voluntary redundancy, and we are committed to supporting our people through this transition with access to outplacement services and wellbeing support.
For more than a year, we’ve worked to protect the jobs of our Grosvenor workforce – including redeploying roles to our other underground operations. The phased nature of the re-entry work, carried out in close coordination with regulators, means we are now in a position to engage unions and our Grosvenor EA (enterprise agreement) workforce in a voluntary redundancy expression of interest process, which is in its very early stages.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland limits use of ‘good character’ evidence for convicted sex offenders
Queensland parliament has limited convicted sex offenders from using “good character” evidence to reduce their jail term.
The laws are based on recommendations from Queensland’s sentencing advisory council and make a number of changes to the sentencing process. It also creates a new aggravating factor requiring the court to treat offences against people aged 16 or 17 as more serious, among other reforms.
Historically, rapists, like other convicted criminals, were able to introduce evidence from employers, friends and family to argue that they were otherwise of “good character”, which would be required to taken into account by the judge.
The state attorney general, Deb Frecklington, who introduced the legislation, said “no one wants to hear that a rapist is all-round great person, a trustworthy mate, or that they’re respected in the community – especially not their victim, bravely sitting in court”.
Now such evidence can only be taken into account where it is relevant to the offender’s prospects of rehabilitation or likelihood of reoffending. The legislation passed on the voices, effectively unanimously, last night.
Laneway drops lineup featuring Chappell Roan, Alex G, Lucy Dacus and more
Laneway has just announced its lineup for next year’s festival.
The top of the bill is stacked with pop and indie darlings, including Chappell Roan, Alex G, Geese, Wet Leg and local legends Armlock and Shady Nasty, among many others.
The pre-sale starts next Tuesday, 23 September.
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NSW treasurer says new planning system will stop state ‘tripping over our own red tape’
Daniel Mookhey, the NSW treasurer, said this morning yesterday’s proposal to majorly overhaul the state’s planning system would help speed up housing approvals.
He told RN Breakfast:
We have a tendency in New South Wales to have been tripping over our own red tape. 22 agencies having to be involved in deciding whether or not a home can be built is just too many.
And what we’re wanting to do with this reform is fundamentally modernise how we make planning decisions. But the reason why that’s important is because we do need to build more homes and we do need to build them fast than we have been in recent times. And so we do think that these reforms are a big, big step up on the existing status quo.
Shoebridge says Australia has obligation to act after UN commission report
Shoebridge went on to say Australia had an obligation to apply sanctions on Israel akin to those applied to Russia, but said the Albanese government “can’t even acknowledge that a genocide is happening”. He told RN:
We haven’t had that clear acknowledgment from the Albanese government, and that means we’re not taking the action we’re obliged to, both legally and morally. …
The evidence, the overwhelming evidence that it’s not just a fear, but a reality of a genocide, means we have an obligation to act. And I cannot understand why we continue to provide material support to the Israeli military, why we continue to give diplomatic cover to the Netanyahu.
Greens accuse opposition of engaging ‘in genocide denial and climate denial’
The Greens’ foreign affairs spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said Cash’s remarks reflected an opposition engaging in “genocide denial”, adding her comments were “incredible”. Shoebridge told RN Breakfast:
We have a so-called opposition in Australia that’s engaged in genocide denial and climate denial. They’re not a serious political party. They’re not engaging with the reality of what’s happening on the ground.
That’s a war against the people of Gaza, an obscene war against the people of Gaza that is killing children, using mass starvation as a tool of war. It is incredible that. Somebody who wants to be a senior player in Australian politics is engaged in genocide denial right now.
