Attorney general outlines plannned privacy reforms including ‘right to erasure’
The attorney-general, Michelle Rowland, is announcing planned new privacy reforms at a Canberra press conference. She has told reporters:
We know that Australians are increasingly concerned about how their data is being collected, used, and shared, particularly as AI and other emerging technologies such as smart glasses become more accessible. People should not have to choose between protecting their privacy and participating in the digital economy.
She said the government was planning to introduceL
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A “fair and reasonable” test to limit companies to collecting and using only the personal information they need;
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A right to erasure, so people can ask digital platforms to destroy their stores of personal information;
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Stronger standards for consent and clearer information when people agree to share personal details;
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Limits on businesses buying and selling personal information without clear permission;
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And a new ID Lock service through MyGov, designed to let Australians block, unblock, and monitor the use of their eligible identity documents for verification.
Key events
Government not planning to ban import of smartglasses, says Rowland
Michelle Rowland says the government is not immediately planning to ban imports of smartglasses.
The Greens and others have called for the camera-enabled wearable technology to locked out of the country.
The attorney general has told reporters the calls to limit the technology were “valid”. She said:
Firstly, I want to acknowledge the very deep concerns. We are not specifically in this consultation consulting on an import ban. … that would have consequences across government, including across trade, foreign affairs, and other potential legal obligations that can apply internationally.
She said the government’s reforms today would still impact on the smartglasses, with digital platforms prevented from storing recordings and data from the glasses if it was not “fair and reasonable” to do so.
Rowland said she commended local governments who were blocking the glasses’ use, for example at public pools, and said the federal government needed to use the powers that it had.
Let’s be clear, we’re talking about the harmful behaviours and regulating the harms. That’s what governments seek to do. In terms of an import ban, as I said, we are not ruling anything out, but we are utilising what we have at our disposal right now.
Attorney general outlines plannned privacy reforms including ‘right to erasure’
The attorney-general, Michelle Rowland, is announcing planned new privacy reforms at a Canberra press conference. She has told reporters:
We know that Australians are increasingly concerned about how their data is being collected, used, and shared, particularly as AI and other emerging technologies such as smart glasses become more accessible. People should not have to choose between protecting their privacy and participating in the digital economy.
She said the government was planning to introduceL
-
A “fair and reasonable” test to limit companies to collecting and using only the personal information they need;
-
A right to erasure, so people can ask digital platforms to destroy their stores of personal information;
-
Stronger standards for consent and clearer information when people agree to share personal details;
-
Limits on businesses buying and selling personal information without clear permission;
-
And a new ID Lock service through MyGov, designed to let Australians block, unblock, and monitor the use of their eligible identity documents for verification.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian prisoners to be sent out to repair roads under Labor’s pothole plan
Victorian prisoners will be put to work on road maintenance as part of Labor’s plan to fix the state’s potholes if re-elected.
The state’s premier, Ben Carroll, will outline the plan on Monday off the back of an announcement on Sunday that the government would be increasing the road maintenance budget by $352m to fix 500,000 potholes by the end of January.
Carroll will declare that if Labor wins the November election, it would work with Corrections Victoria to develop a pilot program to put supervised, minimum-security prisoners to work performing roadside maintenance.
The plan would include having inmates take over “basic” duties such as mowing lawns, controlling weeds, removing graffiti and picking up rubbish, allowing more skilled crews to focus on fixing potholes.
The government said the work of prisoners “will not replace paid jobs” but instead “supplement the workforce where there are skill and capacity shortages”.
Read more here:
Luca Ittimani
Home lending to owner-occupiers growing faster than investors
Owner-occupier home lending grew faster than property investor lending in July, for the first time since 2024.
Statistics from the Reserve Bank show investor credit grew by 0.462% in the month, its slowest growth rate since October 2024. It had risen by at least 0.7% every month in the year prior.
The significant slowdown appears to reflect the drop in new loan commitments to investors since the budget’s tax reforms.
Owner-occupier lending data shows no such slowdown. It rose by 0.463% in July, very slightly faster than the investor measure. It has grown by an average of 0.48% a month in 2026 so far.
Mortgage broker data had already indicated owner-occupier and first home buyer demand had been more resilient than investor demand.
Other personal credit grew by 0.3% in the month, leaving the annual rate of growth steady at 4.7% as consumers keep borrowing and spending.
Albanese heading to Palau for Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting
Anthony Albanese will travel to Palau today and stay on the island nation until 3 September for the 55th Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting.
It will be the prime minister’s first official visit to Palau, which will come as the meeting focuses on the theme “Building Economies: Life. Action. Unity”.
Albanese said in a statement:
Australia is a proud member of the Pacific family, and investing in the security and prosperity of our Pacific neighbours makes our region safer and our economy stronger.
Our engagement in the Pacific Islands Forum and our contributions to the infrastructure, regional security and climate action of the region matter more than ever before.
The forum has faced some turmoil after several leaders pulled out at the last minute. Read more here:
Tom McIlroy
Defence minister to meet tech industry
Richard Marles, the defence minister, is headed to the US and UK this week for talks with technology companies and partners in Washington and Westminster.
Marles’ trip coincides with commemorations in Australia and the United States to mark the 75th anniversary of the Anzus Treaty. He will meet members of the Trump administration to talk about the Aukus nuclear deal, as well as US military rotations to Australia.
The trip will also include meetings on AI, including with tech company Anthropic. The government signed a memorandum of understanding with the company in April. The assistant minister for science, technology and the digital economy, Andrew Charlton, will also attend the San Francisco leg of the trip, part of efforts to woo Anthropic to invest in Australia.
In London, Marles will meet with the new secretary of state for defence, Wes Streeting.
“On the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty between Australia and the US we celebrate the enduring foundation of trust, cooperation, and shared purpose that underpins our Alliance today,” Marles said.
NSW opposition leader says ‘let’s not wait’ to take action on violent pornography
The NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, says she has written to Anthony Albanese after a 16-year-old girl died from a suspected sexual strangulation incident.
Sloane said the reports were shocking and had “rocked everyone to their core”, saying she had written to the prime minister about the need to tackle violent pornography.
I’m saying, you know, after the shock of the last week, that let’s act now, let’s not wait any longer.
The opposition leader said certain types of pornography should be placed into the most restricted category and pressure should be applied on porn companies and social media giants to “just make sure wherever we’re at, we can block it”.
It has the ability to program the young, vulnerable minds of a generation of people whose first sexual experiences are being distorted because of this. Kids at 16, this is shocking. And it’s becoming normalised.
Sloane went on to say education about consent was also a critical prong, even if it’s a “very tough” conversation between parents and teenagers.
It’s a hard conversation to have with your kids. But around consent, we need to model that behaviour as well.
Sloane added that she told Albanese the NSW Liberals were “very supportive” of Chanel Contos’ campaign, Fix Our Feeds, which urges an opt-in mechanism for algorithms.
These algorithms prey on people, whether it’s young boys feeding them increasingly misogynistic content online, whether it’s girls preying on their vulnerabilities about their looks and their self-worth.
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this post contains images and names of Indigenous Australians who have died.
McCarthy calls Mundine a ‘trailblazer’ for Indigenous Australians in sport
NT senator Malarndirri McCarthy paid tribute to Mundine this morning, calling him a “a trailblazer for Indigenous Australians in sport”.
He was a proud father, grandfather and mentor whose legacy will live on through the generations he inspired, both in and out of the ring.
My thoughts are with the Mundine family, as well as all those who knew and loved Tony.
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Some Nepal flood victims had minutes of notice. Others had seconds
Guardian Australia’s Cait Kelly has a dispatch from the recovery effort in Kathmandu, Nepal. She writes:
On Sunday the combined toll in Nepal and Tibet climbed to 781 dead and more than 3,000 people missing. Forty-three of them are Australians. The humanitarian crisis on the ground is huge – but aid, a large amount of it from Australia, has started to arrive.
An additional $3m, on top of $5m already announced, was confirmed on Monday morning.
The army barracks have become the heartbeat of the crisis – bringing survivors in, taking supplies out and trying to place the dead with their families, so they can be laid properly to rest.
“With every helicopter there are mixed feelings,” says Plan International’s Unni Krishnan, who is on the ground in the Nuwkot district to oversee the response.
“It’s a scene of hope and despair – there are families here who have been waiting for three days to hear about their loved ones … Some of them will arrive and some of them will not.”
Read more here:
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this post contains images and names of Indigenous Australians who have died.
Australian boxing great Tony Mundine dies aged 75
Indigenous Australian boxing great Tony Mundine has died, aged 75.
AAP reports the father of former boxer and NRL star Anthony Mundine had a heart attack on Sunday.
Born in Baryulgil, near Grafton in northern New South Wales, Tony Mundine was the first Australian to fight in four different weight divisions, challenging for the world middleweight title against Argentina’s Carlos Monzón in 1974, in a bout stopped in the seventh round.
Mundine leaves a significant boxing legacy. Anthony was an IBO middleweight and WBA super-middleweight world champion, whose son Rahim won his fourth career fight from as many professional bouts on the Gold Coast only last week.
Read more here:
Watt says government thinks there are ‘real privacy risks’ with smart glasses
Ahead of attorney general Michelle Rowland releasing a discussion paper about privacy reforms on Monday, Labor MP Murray Watt has weighed in on smart glasses.
We think that there are real privacy risks with people having photos of themselves, images of themselves taken by these glasses without their consent and when they don’t even know it’s happening …
However, Watt says some people were using smart glasses for reading and other accessibility reasons.
I think we’re really quick to demonise something like this because it seems out of hand, like it’s dodgy or somehow it could be used for the worst. You’re playing catchup.
Back to the One Nation victory in a WA byelection this weekend
Earlier, the assistant minister for foreign affairs, Matt Thistlethwaite, said One Nation’s success in Secret Harbour was indicative of the “challenge” Labor has faced in communicating its cost-of-living relief policies.
“I know that people are looking at One Nation,” he told ABC’s Radio National.
We would say that they don’t offer the solutions that people are seeking, particularly around cost of living when One Nation’s voting record in the federal parliament is to vote against improving rights for workers and ensuring that they take home more money in their pay packets.
Joyce says he has not heard from David Farley about any plans to leave One Nation
Barnaby Joyce weighed in earlier on a report in the Saturday Paper this weekend that new party MP David Farley is mulling quitting One Nation to sit as an independent.
The Saturday Paper reported some of Farley’s colleagues worry his relationship with the party has broken down amid tension over One Nation’s migration target numbers.
Joyce told RN this morning he was unaware of any plan for Farley to leave the party, saying his new colleague had “broad shoulders” and could handle difficult moments:
I had a conversation with him nearly a day or so ago, and that was completely the opposite of what he said to me. I mean, this is in every party, you have to go through the discussion, the process, and you know, and David is an incredibly important part of that.
He’s incredibly competent, and you know … an asset to the party. And we want to make sure that we can we continue on with that.
Of course the media have a lot of fun with people if they can smell blood on the water.
