Australia's Greens party has launched a campaign for a 12-month import ban on camera-equipped smart glasses, which they have labelled "pervert glasses" over fears they enable covert filming of women and children in public. The push comes as cheaper alternatives to Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses become widely available through retailers such as Kmart and Temu, prompting concerns that outdated privacy laws are failing to keep pace with the technology.

Greens senator David Shoebridge said the devices let people secretly film others in change rooms, on the street or at children's swimming lessons without consent, citing Monash University research showing many smart-glasses owners admit to filming people without permission. The campaign has proved awkward for the Greens, after Senator Sarah Hanson-Young's husband, lobbyist Ben Oquist, was pictured wearing the glasses, though her office says her support for a ban is unchanged. Other MPs, including Kate Chaney and David Pocock, have echoed calls for a ban, and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland acknowledged the concerns—citing research suggesting 60 per cent of some point-of-view footage constitutes harassment—but stopped short of backing an import ban, saying it was not part of the current privacy law review.