Updated OAIC guidance implements what the Administrative Review Tribunal
decided in the Bunnings matter, covering 62 stores between 2018 and 2021. It clarifies when the
consent exceptions apply to biometric collection in retail, restates that a precautionary
approach is required, and cites a survey finding that 45 per cent of Australians now rate
facial recognition among the biggest privacy risks they face. The Kmart matter is still live.
The privacy regulator's triennial national survey puts AI
companies equal-last on trust, level with data brokers. Ninety-six per cent want
conditions before an AI decides anything about them, and of the eight conditions
measured in both 2023 and 2026, every one rose. We read the 80-page report and set
it against the regulatory posture Australia actually chose.
In 2024 the government proposed ten mandatory guardrails for
high-risk AI and three ways to make them law, up to an Australian AI Act. The plan
that answered commits to none of it; the word "guardrails" does not appear once in
its 37 pages. We read both documents end to end, and here is what actually binds
an Australian AI deployer today.
