ALL EYES ON YOU

NSW and Victoria have given in-principal support to a federal plan that would allow police and agencies to access passports and driver licences without a warrant, using the images to run facial recognition scanning in public places to bolster anti-terror investigations. The measure is one of a number of security changes that will be discussed when premiers and chief ministers meet with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Canberra at the Council of Australian Governments meeting today.

Privacy and digital rights advocates are already raising the alarm, with criminology expert Adam Molnar telling Fairfax the plan equates to “mass undifferentiated surveillance” and could breach requirements that police have “probable cause” before they search an individual. Tim Singleton of Digital Rights Watch has described the plan as “gross overreach”.

The government appears ready to respond to such complaints, with Turnbull describing the proposed system as a “fundamentally vital piece of technology”. While the unprecedented scheme would offer no opt-out options for citizens, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said yesterday: “There’s no extra database, no extra collection of data — all it is, is about access to existing databases, passports, Department of Immigration, and drivers’ licences if we can.”

Also on the agenda at COAG today will be the government’s energy plans, with NSW and Victoria expected to push back against threats to dock GST funds from states that put limits on fracking.

LAS VEGAS AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION

As police continue to search for a motive to explain the Mandalay Bay Resort mass shooting in Las Vegas, attention has turned to the Australian girlfriend of the shooter Stephen Paddock.

Marilou Danley has returned to the US from the Phillipines where she had been at the time of the massacre and where she was reportedly transferred more than $100,000 by Paddock. The FBI considers her a person of interest but not a suspect and collected her from the airport.

A man married to Danley’s sister and living in Brisbane has again spoken to journalists, shedding new light on his multiple interactions with Paddock. The unnamed man told The Guardian that Paddock was a methodical figure who had an impressive knowledge of the US’s gun control debate and believed his gun collecting “hobby” deserved to be protected.

“I’ve asked that question of many people I know from the US, and sadly enough, the answer is very similar in many ways: that people have this belief that the constitutional amendment is their right, with very little understanding of the content of that actual bill,” he said.

“I think it’d be fair to say [Paddock] indicated to me that he certainly knew more than most.”

US President Donald Trump has today visited the site of the massacre.

EMPLOYERS TO PAY FOR RACISM

Companies that rip-off foreign workers could be subject to unlimited damages after the Fair Work Ombudsman successfully prosecuted a Tasmanian resort that underpaid staff working on 457 visas. The successful case in the Federal Circuit Court will add “another string to [the Ombudsman’s] bow,” labour law professor John Howe told the Australian Financial Review.

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SSM: Bob Hawke labels postal survey ‘worst economic decision made by any prime minister since federation’

Hawthorn reinstate Jeff Kennett as president

2017 Nobel Chemistry Prize awarded to three microscope trailblazers

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra: COAG meets with terrorism and police powers set to dominate the agenda.

Melbourne: The Climate Council launches its latest report. It argues politicians are the only thing standing between Australia and a transition to renewable energy.

Sydney: We regret to inform you that Alan Jones will be launching Mark Latham’s book (luckily a Crikey journo will be there, so you don’t miss out).

THE COMMENTARIAT

Facial recognition database pushes us towards Orwellian future — Paul Smith (Australian Financial Review $): “It is hardly out of the realms of possibility that corruption or cyber attackers could lead to these systems being breached or misused, then imagine if you are in witness protection or in a safe house hiding from an abusive partner.”

ADF’s naval focus must shift from Middle East to western Pacific — James Goldrick and Andrew Shearer (The Australian $): “An increased Australian military presence is required in Southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific. From working with the US and other like-minded countries to balance China’s increasingly assertive maritime presence and contain North Korea’s aggressive nuclear weapons programs to managing the regional spillover from the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate, emerging challenges in the western Pacific will require more substantial and sophisticated res­ponses, and not just from our military.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Domestic violence needs and deserves the same focus as terrorism — Bernard Keane: “Focusing on domestic violence and violence toward women cannot be dismissed, as many cultural warriors on both the left and the right want to do, as an indulgence of middle-class feminists and some sort of thought crime against working-class men. It’s a well-demonstrated pointer to radicalisation and propensity to other forms of more catastrophic violence.”

Solving gun crime is bigger than amnesties and crackdowns: violence prevention expert — Sally Whyte: “McPhedran says evidence from other countries shows that combating gun violence needs to look at broader socio-economic factors, like a lack of educational opportunities, employment opportunities, and other issues when trying to decrease the number of illegal guns in the community, and violence associated with that.”

Daily Mail falls for Vegas hoax … scenes from a massacre … impossible journalist wanted … — Emily Watkins: “The Mail’s journalist Stephen Johnson published his story yesterday about 11am — well after the fake news about Antifa’s involvement had been listed in multiple stories about Las Vegas hoaxes. His story doesn’t include any reference to official comments about the shooter’s motivation, and was still online this morning.”

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