Company behind app says no personal information is collected but experts warn of ‘how easily’ data can be hacked
Yudara Kularathne came up with the idea for an AI-driven app when a friend was worried about a bump on their penis.
Kularathne was then a consultant physician in Singapore in 2019, but he saw the potential for an app that could instantly identify a suspected sexually transmitted infection from a photo of male genitalia.
Continue reading...Labor describes claims as ‘fear-mongering’ and says government would not accept waste from other nations
Australia could become a “poison portal” for international radioactive waste under the Aukus deal, a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear safety legislation has heard.
New laws to establish a safety framework for Australia’s planned nuclear-powered submarines could also allow the US and UK to send waste here, while both of those countries are struggling to deal with their own waste, as no long-term, high-level waste facilities have been created.
Continue reading...Senate committee queries new regulations that mean decisions normally made by ministers and officials are now automated
The federal government’s increasing use of computers to make decisions is raising alarm – including from its own ranks – with a bipartisan committee warning automation could jeopardise important safeguards that human discretion provides.
Urging the government to heed the findings of the robodebt royal commission and the commonwealth ombudsman’s artificial intelligence guidelines, a Senate committee has queried moves by the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, and the agriculture minister, Murray Watt, to expand the use of automated decision-making in immigration and biosecurity.
Continue reading...CoreLogic data shows prices rose 0.6% in March while separate index from PropTrack produces similar results
National home values set a record high for a fifth consecutive month in March as a resilient economy and the swelling population pointed to further increases to come.
The home value index compiled by data group CoreLogic showed prices rose 0.6% last month, matching February’s increase. Median home prices were $772,730, rebounding just over one-tenth since its recent nadir in January 2023.
Continue reading...Decisions about coal mining and unconventional gas where water resources are affected could be made by states and territories under proposal
Environment groups have criticised a proposed change by the Albanese government to national environmental laws, saying it puts “precious water resources at risk” and could have “centuries-long consequences”.
The proposal would allow states and territories to make decisions about coal mining and unconventional gas where water resources are affected. Currently the federal government has the final say on such projects under the so-called “water trigger”.
Continue reading...Five people rescued while dozens remained stranded at campsite in northern Queensland. Follow the day’s news live
Support for Labor drops in WA as Coalition gains ground among the young
Voters in Western Australia are shifting away from Labor towards the Coalition, as the opposition gains ground among young people.
Continue reading...Two men, aged 38 and 65, leapt into water after child fell into deep end on Sunday night
A father and grandfather have died trying to save a two-year-old child who fell into a Gold Coast pool on Sunday.
The toddler was reportedly playing beside the apartment block pool when they slipped and fell into the deep end about 7pm on Sunday, sparking a double Easter tragedy.
Continue reading...Services Australia is working with Ergon to return overpayments, prompting fears the issue first identified at AGL could be widespread
A second Australian energy company wrongly received money from the welfare payments of former customers, prompting fears that the issue identified at AGL could be widespread.
Guardian Australia revealed last week that $700,000 had been diverted via the government-run Centrepay debit system from the pockets of more than 500 welfare recipients to the energy giant AGL.
Continue reading...Pilot scheme supplies 1,000 folding boxes to farms and wholesalers to reduce single-use cardboard, paper and plastic
A pilot scheme to replace cardboard produce boxes with reusable plastic crates has been launched in Victoria, with the aim to cut “invisible” cardboard waste.
The Victoria Unboxed project, led by the food charity Sustain with Sustainable Victoria, has supplied 1,000 reusable plastic crates to transport produce from farms to venues, wholesalers and homes across Melbourne. The trial aims to reduce the need for single-use packaging, including cardboard, plastic and paper waste.
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Continue reading...Tayla Vlaeminck celebrated her return to international cricket by taking with a wicket with her fourth ball, as Australia thrashed Bangladesh in their series-opening Twenty20 international.
Playing her first game for Australia since January 2022, the Victorian quick beat Sobhana Mostary for pace, splattering the stumps and finishing with 1-30 as Australia restricted Bangladesh to 4-126, before chasing the target down without loss and with seven overs to spare.
Continue reading...Justice Michael Lee will hear an urgent application from Network Ten at 5pm on Tuesday
Network Ten will ask the federal court to reopen its defence on Tuesday at an emergency hearing scheduled less than two days before the judgement in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case is due to be handed down.
Justice Michael Lee was scheduled to deliver his judgment in the federal court in Sydney at 10.15am on Thursday 4 April in the defamation case Lehrmann brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Continue reading...Health authorities also warn RSV, flu and whooping cough cases on the rise around Australia
A measles alert was issued for Sydney on Sunday and other airborne illnesses are on the rise, while Australia’s Covid load is relatively low after the summer’s surge of the JN.1 variant.
New South Wales Health issued an alert on Sunday morning after a woman caught measles from a child who had been diagnosed days earlier.
Continue reading...David Crisafulli criticises pill testing trial in sign opposition may roll back harm minimisation polices if elected in October
The Queensland opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has criticised the state’s new pill testing regime, a potential sign his party would roll back Labor’s new drug policies if elected in October.
The sunshine state opened its first festival clinic on Thursday and will open the first fixed site clinic in Brisbane next month. The Labor government has committed to open a second once a site has been confirmed.
Continue reading...But Greens’ David Shoebridge says Labor has ‘jumped the shark’ with the legislation and it requires more scrutiny
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has blamed a “Peter Dutton-Adam Bandt alliance” for the government’s failure to rush through “draconian” deportation legislation in the parliament last week.
But Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has described the laws as “draconian”, said the Labor government was alone in supporting the laws without scrutiny, arguing it was “everybody in the parliament except for Labor” who wanted further examination of legislation “that looked like it had been drawn in crayon without any rational basis behind it”.
Continue reading...In NSW, you can blame a computer which generates names at random, while in the Northern Territory ‘generic categories’ deliver operations named after rivers and battleships
New South Wales police last week arrested 15 people as part of Strikeforce Wessex – an investigation into alleged organised criminal networks operating “dial-a-dealer” schemes.
But what does Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Great Britain, have to do with drug dealing and mobile phones across Sydney?
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Continue reading...Correspondence shows tax officials defended program, which aimed to claw back ‘on-hold’ debts, as being in line with watchdog advice
The Australian Taxation Office assured the government that its widely criticised “robotax” scheme adhered to best practice principles months before it suspended a major component of the program and it was publicly reprimanded by the ombudsman.
Internal ATO documents released to Guardian Australia show the tax office responded to a query from the office of the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, about the scheme’s methods by arguing the agency had taken on previously issued advice designed to improve how it communicated with taxpayers.
Continue reading...Welfare advocates say there is ‘simply no reason’ for $3.6m in payments over past five years to agencies when jobs were found prior to engaging their service
Job providers are being paid millions of dollars in public money for work that jobseekers are finding themselves, with advocates saying there is “simply no reason” for the payments.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has paid providers over $3.6m in the past five years for pre-existing employment, where someone on jobseeker found a job prior to starting with a provider, according to data provided to Guardian Australia by the department.
Continue reading...Woman, 43, died after paramedics were called to a Surfers Paradise hotel on Friday night
A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.
Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.
Continue reading...Twentyman spent more than four decades campaigning on youth homelessness and social welfare
The prominent Melbourne youth worker and social justice campaigner, Les Twentyman, has died aged 76.
The Les Twentyman Foundation announced his death in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology
The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.
Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.
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