Licence photos uploaded

THE face of every Tasmanian with a driver’s licence is now contained in a Federal Government database in preparation for a national facial recognition program.

Last month it was revealed photos of Tasmanians had been sent to Canberra for a national facial recognition database. This was despite the relevant laws failing to pass federal parliament.

In response to a question on notice during government business enterprise hearings last week, Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson revealed the images of 410,000 Tasmanian driver’s licence holders had been sent to the database kept by the Department of Home Affairs.

Mr Ferguson has confirmed it was “his understanding” the figure represented every Tasmanian with a licence.

“What the Government has been doing is very carefully looking after people’s data and photographs are part of that,” he said.

“That information is protected and not available to any other jurisdiction or agency unless there’s a lawful law enforcement purpose.

“This is a two-stage process that’s been agreed to by all governments, Liberal and Labor, around Australia.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the transfer of the images was a major breach of privacy.

“The Tasmanian Government has transferred 410,000 photographs of Tasmanians to a facial recognition database in Canberra without their consent, and is potentially in breach of both federal and state legislation,” Ms O’Connor said.

“Every Tasmanian should have the right to privacy.

“That means having a say over what happens to their biometric information.”

Tasmanian director of Civil Liberties Australia Richard Griggs said the transfer presented issues including lack of consent and prior knowledge, the potential use of the data and the potential for it to be hacked.

“There are a lot of questions unanswered … Democracy dies behind closed doors and that’s exactly what’s happened here,” Mr Griggs said.

Home Affairs Minister

Peter Dutton has vowed to press on with the facial recognition laws, which are being tweaked in response to concerns about privacy and safety.

Under the plan, driver’s licence, passport and visa images will be stored by the Department of Home Affairs.

Parliament’s intelligence and security committee blocked the legislation, telling the Government to redraft the legislation and put stronger safeguards in place.