Australia news live: Chalmers says migration needed for falling birth rate; city of Sydney bans smart glasses

The City of Sydney has banned smart glasses in all its pools, libraries, gyms, childcare centres and town halls.

The council agreed to update signage and guidance to prevent people wearing the glasses in community facilities, due to growing privacy and harassment concerns.

In a statement, Greens councillor Matthew Thompson said his motion included exemptions for those who use t he glasses as accessibility devices, including those with vision and hearing loss.

He urged the federal government to do more to regulate the glasses and prevent their misuse, saying that:

Overseas we’re seeing women being targeted and harassed in public and recorded without their consent. We don’t want what’s happening in the US to happen here. That’s why we’re banning smart glasses and other wearable recording devices from all of our pools, gyms, childcare [centres], libraries and other council spaces. Cheap wearable devices like smart glasses are already flooding the market. But instead of stopping this problem, the federal Labor government has dumped it onto councils to sort out. We need an import ban on these cheap, intrusive devices until we have stronger privacy protections and clear standards implemented nationally.

Last week, Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown council introduced its own restrictions on the technology. Its mayor, Bilal El-Hayek , decried what he called “pervert glasses” as the council barred the wearable tech from public pools. In August, Brisbane city council became the first to ban the glasses from pools. Melbourne’s Yarra city council has banned them from playgrounds, childcare centres and gyms.