Australia politics live: government dumps FoI changes; Victoria looks to curb use of suppression orders protecting high-profile defendants

Privacy commissioner won’t appeal Bunnings facial recognition ruling

Last month, the administrative review tribunal gave Bunnings the green light to use facial recognition technology to detect previously banned people entering its stores, overturning a decision of the privacy commissioner.

The privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, confirmed today that she had not appealed the ruling (before the time to appeal expired), but said it’s not a green light for every other business to rush out the technology.

She said retailers have expressed a desire to deploy this technology, and had sought more certainty on how the Privacy Act operates with this emerging technology.

Kind said the ART decision provides clarity:

The tribunal’s decision shows that Australian privacy law allows for the balancing of competing interests – the individual and public interests in privacy, on the one hand, and the need to protect public safety and address unlawful activity on the other.

Specific updates to existing guidance will be made to reflect the tribunal’s decision and ensure that retailers have up-to-date information about our regulatory application of the law.

She said there will still be a “high bar” for using facial recognition technology in Australia, and companies will need to undertake a detailed risk assessment before deploying it:

Retailers should view the decision as a useful case study, rather than a green light for deployment of biometric technologies.

Minns says pro-Palestine protests ‘organised by a pack of communists’

Returning to NSW budget estimates, the premier, Chris Minns, has lashed out at the organisers of a protest against a visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, which saw multiple protesters charged, and following which alleged police brutality is being investigated by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (Lecc).

Upper house Labor members Sarah Kaine and Stephen Lawrence, among government MPs who attended the protest last month, as well as a pro-Palestine march on the Harbour Bridge last year, are on the estimates committee responsible for the premier’s portfolio but have been absent from today’s hearing. Lawrence has said conflict with police at the Herzog protest was “almost inevitable” following protest laws enacted by the government.

Asked what advice was given to Labor MPs about attending rallies, Minns says he does not know whether advice was issued, but said members who attended the protest against Herzog had followed the law.

I’ve sort of grappled with this a lot over the last three years or two and a bit years. In my view, a lot of the protests that have taken place – I assume you’re referring to the Palestinian Action Group protests – a lot of those protests have resulted in violent behavior, terrorist symbols, hate speech on Sydney streets.

But I also believe, I genuinely believe, that a lot of people have attended those marches with none of those intentions in place, that they’ve tried to exercise their democratic right to freedom of speech and expression, and they’re concerned about the circumstances relating to civilians in Gaza … They’re not part of the Palestinian Action Group leadership. My dilemma is that those protests are organised by a pack of communists … intent on having a confrontation with police.

The Palestine Action Group has been contacted for comment.

We must build sovereign AI capability, Carney says

Continuing his address, Carney says AI is transforming economies and our lives and it will be crucial to develop sovereign AI and intelligence infrastructure.

He says Australia and Canada can work together on this, as Canada also partners with like-minded nations in Europe, and has a trilateral AI initiative with India.

Strategic autonomy will require sovereign intelligence infrastructure, including secure clouds data, LLM models, enterprise applications. Canada can contribute here as well … We know we must work with others who share our values to build sovereign AI capabilities so we are not caught between the hyperscalers and the hegemons.

World can be shaped by middle powers, Carney says

Carney has been heralded for his speech about the rupture in the world order, which he made at Davos in Switzerland earlier this year.

He tells the parliament that middle powers can shape the world when they trust each other and that Australia and Canada are right to build up their defence and strategic capabilities, as well as sovereign AI.

He says Canada is building a “dense web of connections to build our resilience”, and that this is not a retreat from multilateralism but an “evolution of it”.

Middle powers like Australia and Canada hold this rare convening power, because others know we mean what we say, and we will match our values with our actions. This has been earned by those before us, throughout our history, and the question is now what do we do with it.

The world will always be shaped by great powers. But it can also be shaped by middle powers that trust each other enough to act with speed and purpose.

We need coalitions now to address immediate challenges, and as those coalitions work, they will help demonstrate the power of multilateralism and reinvigorate it.

In pictures: Mark Carney addresses the parliament

Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, says Australia and Canada will be stronger negotiating with major powers together, acting as “strategic cousins” rather than competitors.

Carney is addressing the parliament, and begins by acknowledging the firefighters in the chamber who battled wildfires in his home state of Alberta in Canada last year, and says it’s one of many testaments to the “profound friendship” of the two countries.

Carney calls for greater cooperation on critical minerals, defence and trade and announces Australia would join the G7 critical minerals alliance.

With that global architecture now breaking down from consecutive crises, I have come to Australia to reaffirm our alliance and to suggest where we can go next. Because it is my fundamental belief – the result of an optimism I may have picked up from this great country – that from this rupture we can build something better, more prosperous, more resilient, more just …

In the old world, and even to a degree today, the temptation has been to see ourselves as competitors. In this new world, we should be strategic collaborators.

Carney a man of the ‘highest calibre’, Taylor says

Following Albanese, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, makes his remarks ahead of Carney’s address.

Taylor reflects on meeting Carney at Oxford University in 1991, both studying economics.

In politics, one of life’s great joys is seeing old friends do well. So it gives me immense joy to see Canada led by an old friend, a man of the highest calibre, utterly devoted to his country.

Taylor says Carney’s speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland was a “much needed wake-up call for middle powers”.

The rules based international order has been exposed as wishful thinking of a bygone and benign era, especially in these times when autocratic regimes act with impunity. And I wholeheartedly agree with you, in this brave new world, middle powers cannot simply build higher walls in a retreat behind them, we must work together, we must work together, closer than ever on defence on secure supply chains and sovereign capabilities, on maintaining free trade.

‘Australia and Canada must seek and create new ways to stand with and for each other,’ Albanese says

Anthony Albanese quotes former wartime Labor prime minister John Curtin, who said that “where none of us is strong enough to stand alone, we shall discover how and by what means we can best stand with and for each other”.

He says government is not a “passive institution” but an instrument for positive change.

As Mark Carney will soon speak on the importance of strengthening the middle powers, Albanese also says “peace, security and prosperity are not the preserve of the great powers alone. They are our common cause and our collective responsibility.”

Technology is changing the nature of conflict and heightening the risk and cost of escalation. And if ever nations such as ours had the luxury of imagining that distance alone kept us safe, those days are certainly gone.

The same Iranian regime launching indiscriminate attacks on nations across the Middle East orchestrated antisemitic terrorist attacks on a synagogue and a small business here in Australia, in 2024.

For us, as two democracies in an age of polarisation, as two dynamic trading nations in a time of disrupted supply chains, and as two middle powers in an era of strategic competition, Australia and Canada must seek and create new ways to stand with and for each other.

It’s a rare moment when we get a foreign leader addressing the parliament, but Mark Carney is about to begin his address.

He’s addressing both houses, so the chamber is very full to say the least, with both MPs and senators!

Carney will be calling for greater strategic cooperation and the strengthening of middle powers like Canada and Australia.

Before he begins, Anthony Albanese welcomes Carney, who he calls “his friend”.

In 1854 it was a Canadian, Henry Ross, who stood in the centre of the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat and raised a new flag, the iconic Southern Cross, a symbol of the miners’ struggle for justice. In other words, prime minister, Canadian rebels with bold ideas have always been welcome here in Australia.

NSW considers road testing changes for medicinal cannabis users

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says the state government will draft legislation for changes to roadside drug testing for medicinal cannabis users, a recommendation of its 2024 drug summit, following accusations it had “squibbed” the opportunity for major drug reform.

In October last year, the state government was accused of ignoring its own summit’s advice after announcing it would continue the use of sniffer dogs and strip searches at music festivals. It supported 36 out of 56 recommendations and 15 others in principle.

It said it would “investigate” a medical defence for people who use medically prescribed cannabis and drive, establishing a working group, after the summit recommended reform.

Asked at budget estimates today if the government would support a private member’s bill which proposes to make it lawful for a person identified as having cannabis in their system to drive if they have a medicinal prescription and are not behaving in a drug-affected manner, Minns says it will not, but that it is considering changes.

I think the latest information I had is there were a million [medicinal cannabis] prescriptions in NSW … My understanding is the former premier of NSW Mike Baird was a big driver of accessing medicinal cannabis. But as a result of those changes, we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people accessing it as a legitimate health alternative to even more powerful drugs, and we think we need a fit-for-purpose regime on New South Wales roads so that we’re not disenfranchising people, particularly in regional communities, from driving …

We will draft our own legislation, but we’re actively considering a change in the policy.

The Victorian attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, has confirmed she is seeking advice to change the laws that allow the issuing of suppression orders for high-profile defendants.

Senior representatives from the Guardian, the Age, the Australian, Herald Sun, the ABC, the Australian Financial Review and the three commercial television networks wrote to her last night warning that defendants were increasingly using “mental health grounds” as a “tactic to obtain suppression orders in circumstances where no such order should be made”. They said open court principles were being “undermined” in Victoria as a result.

Speaking outside parliament on Thursday, Kilkenny confirmed she was “seeking advice” on amending the Open Courts Act. She said the advice would not be confined to the mental health provisions in the act.

I know one of the issues that has been raised [is] mental health [grounds] and whether that has been perhaps abused and expanded when we are looking at stated purposes to protect the safety of any person. I don’t want to say I’ll confine myself to that, but I’ll be seeking advice on options that might be available.

Kilkenny said the community expected a justice system that respects victims:

I acknowledge that the mental health needs of offenders and perpetrators are important, but I think it’s also important that we take into account the mental health needs of victims. We’ve heard from victims that the balance may not be right, that suppression orders are making them feel that their voices are not being heard … [suppression orders] should be rare, and they should be really targeted, and that here in Victoria, we have a presumption in favour of open justice.

A Monash University report published by the Melbourne Press Club earlier this week found Victoria accounts for almost half of all suppression orders in Australia – despite having only a third of the national population.

Mark Carney watch: the Canadian PM sits down with Albanese

Ahead of his address to the Australian parliament this morning, Mark Carney, Anthony Albanese, cabinet ministers and advisers have sat down for a meeting in the cabinet room.

Opposition fails to get up bill to stop people helping Australian women and children get home from Syrian detention camp

There’s some more shenanigans happening in the Senate now that the FOI amendment bill has been officially dumped.

Because of the time taken to debate that motion, the government moves to stop the Senate discussing private senators’ bills today – which is agreed to.

BUT then the Coalition moves a suspension of standing orders to bring on debate on its “keeping Australians safe” bill that would criminalise people helping Australian women and children in a Syrian detention camp from getting home.

Tony Burke had a field day on Monday criticising the bill, which he said would throw in jail the baggage handlers and pilots on any plane the cohort returned on, and called it “one of the shoddiest pieces of legislation” anyone has tried to introduce to parliament.

Shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, says:

It’s an issue that’s been around for weeks. Australians are seeking answers, Australians are seeking assurances from the government around the protection of our borders and our national security, but the government are not going to play ball.

Without the support of the Greens they can’t get it through.

It’s official, the government’s controversial freedom of information amendment bill has been dumped. Because everyone was in favour of dumping it, the motion didn’t even go to a vote.

Before it was dropped, a few more senators got to have a go at the government, including Greens senator David Shoebridge who said Labor took long to “read the room”.

It’s going to go into the dustbin that it should never have been pulled out of in the first place.

And independent senator, David Pocock said:

This is an example of the Senate doing its job to be a check on executive power, which is seeking to protect itself, to reduce scrutiny.

ASX expected to reverse losses amid reports of Iran talks

Australian shares are set to reverse some of yesterday’s steep losses after investors reacted positively to overnight reports that Iranian authorities are seeking to restart negotiations with the US.

Futures pricing indicates the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 will open about 1% higher this morning to the 8,950 point mark, erasing about half of yesterday’s losses.

Global share markets have been hit by inflation fears sparked by the Middle East conflict, linked to energy market disruptions. Increased oil costs contribute to inflation by driving up costs across nearly all goods and services in the economy.

While Donald Trump said he rejected an approach from Tehran, and Iran’s ambassador to the UN denied there had been an approach, investors viewed the reports positively.

The S&P 500 was up 0.88% overnight, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.45%.

National Australia Bank’s market research team says reports of Iran seeking back-channels to negotiate an end to the war help support risk sentiment.

Dealing manager Paco Chow, from trading platform Moomoo, says the outlook will remain cautious until oil flows return to normal, given “geopolitical risk can flare up again very quickly”.

FOI amendment is dead, long live transparency, says transparency warrior

Safe to say there’s plenty of positive reaction to the government moving to dump its controversial FOI bill, with former senator, Rex Patrick, calling it a “victory for civil society”.

Patrick, a self described freedom warrior, and founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund, says there should now be an independent process to modernise the FOI system.

This is a victory for civil society, which has worked collectively to ensure this bill – which would have dramatically eroded transparency in Australia – did not become law. The FOI Amendment Bill is dead. Long live transparency.

Now is the time for real reform – through an independent process.

Kieran Pender, from the Human Rights Law Centre said the freedom of information system “underpins the public’s right to know’.

This Bill would have undermined the public’s right to access government information, weakened the FOI system, and in turn weakened our democracy.