Anti-corruption commission won’t be an ‘exercise in political pay-back’ – Dreyfus
On Mark Dreyfus’ interview on ABC Insiders, the attorney general was asked about the sports rorts scandal and gave his view of what occurred saying: “I thought it was a rort on any view.”
I thought the idea that a decision made in the prime minister’s office when he had no power over the matter with 51 coloured spreadsheets revealed by the auditor general, that looked pretty corrupt to me, but it won’t be my decision. It will be a matter for this independent commissioner to decide if someone refers a matter to her or him, to decide.
Dreyfus made very clear that it wouldn’t be up to him to decide whether the affair was investigated by the new national anti-corruption commission saying he wanted to “make it clear” that “this is not an exercise in political pay-back”.
This is a very large integrity reform that’s been described as the single biggest reform for decades. It’s not partisan. It’s there to improve standards in Australian public life. We are not setting this up to go after our political opponents. It won’t be for me to decide if something is corrupt – it will be for this commission.
Key events
‘We do not have the right laws’ to manage data breaches: Clare O’Neil
O’Neil says “we do not have the right laws” in Australia to manage breaches as with Optus.
Under the previous government, there was a set of laws passed that were meant to be the be all and end all of cybersecurity reform in the country. And the instructions on the labels told me that these laws would provide me with all the powers I would need in a cyber security emergency incident.
To make sure that we can repair the damage. I can tell you that those laws were absolutely useless to me when the Optus matter came on foot.
O’Neil says she’s “not making any specific directions for reform” but says “I simply know that we do not have the right laws in the country to manage cybersecurity emergency incidents”.
What we do need is a federal government that has the laws its fingertips to make sure that we can do things, for example, mandating reporting to customers when the data has been breached within a certain time period.
Bill Shorten urges Optus to work with government
Shorten is laying it on pretty heavily:
We are asking them to a greater transparency, I acknowledge that they had a full-page newspaper ad in the paper on the weekend, but an ad is not a strategy. That is not a plan.
We know Optus is trying to do what it can, but having said that it is not enough. It has been 11 days since the breach, it is peculiar that we still cannot identify who for example has had to get, who used the Medicare information and number for identification. We don’t need this tomorrow or the next get, we needed days ago.
Now is not a time to listen to the lawyers and the damage control merchants, now is the time to take the high road and work with us in all areas as they have been doing in some.
Ministers call for Optus to be transparent
Clare O’Neil:
What I would like to say today to Optus’s transparency and accountability is paramount here, it is crucial that everyone who has been affected by the breach is properly notified of that.
We would like them to be transparent about the numbers of people who have had specific identity documents compromised, and that information has not yet been provided.
Bill Shorten is speaking now and says he would like to “reiterate” the call for Optus to ensure full transparency with Australians.
Specifically on 27 September, services Australia of the agency wrote to Optus and said that we need to identify full and completely who may have used Medicare information, or other Centrelink information to get their 100 points of data so they could get an Optus plan.
We still have not received that information.
I understand that Optus is trying to do its best now to fix up some of the problems that have been created. We call upon them to understand that this breach is introduced systemic problems for 10 million Australians in terms of personal identification.
Business as usual, motoring along in third or fourth year is not enough.
Cybersecurity minister gives update on Optus data breach
The cybersecurity minister, Clare O’Neil, says that she has been advised by the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cybersecurity Centre that they have completed their technical with Optus and that she wishes to thank the company for its cooperation.
“I spoke with commissioner Reese this morning, but investigation is progressing well and I will that the federal police provided details about that during the week,” she says.
Australian authorities are currently focussed on finding who is responsible for the breach and Optus has contacted the 10,200 whose information has been shared onto the internet.
O’Neil urges those people to immediately cancel their cards and begin the process of renewing any identity documents.
Tory Shepherd
The federal government is considering a formal proposal to buy back properties in NSW flood zones, treasurer Jim Chalmers said this morning.
Chalmers told Sky News that the upcoming federal budget was under pressure, but that the government would consider a NSW request to co-fund the property purchase, reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He said:
We received a formal proposal along these lines towards the end of last week, and we’ll go through it in the usual considered and cooperative way.
The people of northern NSW have obviously been through a horrific time when it comes to these natural disasters and the federal government has been there for them under [prime minister] Anthony Albanese‘s leadership.
So we’ll do what we can, subject to the pretty substantial budget constraints that we have, recognising that the funding of natural disaster relief is one of the big pressures on the budget.
He said the October budget would show “the beginnings” of the government’s multinational tax policy and that there would be other conversations around budget savings. Australia is “not out of the woods by any measure” on cost of living, Chalmers said.
The federal government is not expecting or forecasting a surplus in the forward estimates, he said.
Josh Taylor
Privacy Act to get overhaul in wake of Optus data leak: Dreyfus
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has flagged legislation to overhaul privacy law in Australia in the wake of the Optus data breach will be brought to the parliament before the end of this year.
Just over a week and a half after Optus revealed the personal information of 10m of its customers was exposed in one of the largest data breaches in Australia’s history, and Dreyfus said the government’s response to the long-running review of the Privacy Act would contain “tough penalties” and changes to make companies think harder about why they are storing personal information.
He said he had yet to hear a reason why Optus had kept data as far back at 2017, and indicated the data should only be collected when opening an account.
It comes as Optus has taken out full-page ads in newspapers across the country, and on digital billboards apologising for the breach.
Customers are still waiting to hear from Optus as to whether they are part of the 10,000 included in an online drop of records by an alleged attacker earlier this week, and if Optus will be paying to replace their identification documents.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects a trough sweeping over Western Australia and the Northern Territory to head east next week bringing more rain for regions of New South Wales that have already endured significant flooding.
New South Wales state emergency service says those in the south and central west need to remain should remain vigilant over ongoing flood risk.
Ahead of a press conference with Bill Shorten and Clare O’Neil on the latest with the Optus data breach the pair have put out a statement this morning claiming that the telco is not being entirely forthcoming with information.
Federal government is now publicly ripping Optus over response to the data breach, saying the company “needs to come together with the govt to be part of the solution”
Statement from Bill Shorten & Clare O’Neil claim Optus not cooperating with requests for more info pic.twitter.com/9ElOO7g16E
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) October 2, 2022
ABC host says two hands are often needed for big knobs.
ABC News presenter Fauziah Ibrahim offered the candid insight while speaking with Associate Prof Alice Motion from the University of Sydney about the biggest science stories of the week.
After a discussion about an anti-malaria drug that developed from traditional Chinese medicine and reports suggesting dogs can smell when a human is stressed, the interview turned to the discussion of the Ig Nobel prize, a satirical science prize for unexpectedly interesting research.
This year the prize was won by a Japanese scientist who investigated the optimal physics for opening a doorknob, leading to the following exchange:
Motion: The summary is that the bigger the doorknob, the more fingers are needed to open the doorknob and there is a limit to the size and shape that have doorknob.
Ibrahim: Well, in certainly my experience, sometimes you need two hands to deal with a big knob.
Motion: Well … yes.
The exchange took place early on Sunday morning and was rebroadcast in full later that day.
For more on this story about one of life’s most overlooked arts, read the full story from Guardian Australia’s science correspondent Hannah Devlin:
Reserve Bank expects to raise interest rates further
Another rate rise is anticipated when the Reserve Bank board meets again this Tuesday, with many experts leaning towards another 50 basis point hike.
The October cash rate decision, which is expected to see the RBA lift its target from the current 2.35 per cent, is likely to dominate headlines this week alongside CoreLogic’s latest update on house prices.
Due on Monday, the monthly home value index is likely to reveal another drop in property prices as the aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle continues to drag the market lower.
– from AAP
Yesterday was international coffee day, so if you’re just waking up with some of the good stuff here’s how that happened.
Drinking coffee as a beverage is said to have originated in Yemen in the 15th century in Sufi Shrines. It was there that coffee berries were first roasted & brewed in a way similar to how the drink is prepared today
For #InternationalCoffeeDay a thread on coffee & Muslim culture pic.twitter.com/cjTf67MdVC
— Bayt Al Fann (@BaytAlFann) October 1, 2022
With Jeff Kennett’s speech at a Hawks event making headlines on Sunday morning, it is worth revisiting an episode from 1996 during his tenure as Victorian state premier.
During a cost-cutting drive Kennett’s newly elected government embarked on a plan to close 300 schools across the state.
Among those to close was Northland secondary college, which had the highest Indigenous student population of any high school in Victoria, in Preston
The decision sparked a three-year campaign to save the school that included a mock attempt to enrol kids at Scotch college, the elite private school where Kennett’s sons attended.
A decision by the supreme court forced the government to reopen the school.
The struggle to save the school was retold in a cabaret in 2021.
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett plays down racism claims
The outgoing Hawthorn president, Jeff Kennett, has called the leaking of racism allegations at the AFL club “unfair” and hopes the unfolding saga can be resolved by the end of the year.
Speaking at the club’s best and fairest awards function on Saturday night, the former Victorian premier said the club was not in crisis and he described the issue as a “bump along the highway”.
But he told the audience he was “somewhat flabbergasted – and worse” when he read the draft report of the club’s internal review into the experiences of Indigenous players and their partners while at Hawthorn.
Former coach Alastair Clarkson, his then assistant, Chris Fagan, and former development manager Jason Burt were named in the cultural review.
Kennett said on Saturday:
I do not consider this to be a crisis. When I read the draft report … I was somewhat flabbergasted and worse.
It wasn’t a good read. I hope this matter can be resolved quickly by all parties involved.
Kennett said the people interviewed for the report had requested confidentiality and Hawthorn respected that.
Sadly, they made a decision to talk to the press … they named people with whom they had very real issues.
That was unfair to those [people] so therefore we need to have this resolved.
I don’t see this as a crisis – I know this club, I know its history and I know its strength.
We will deal with this and assist in any way we can.
Clarkson said on Wednesday the allegations were “false and deeply offensive” and those close to him knew “how important family is to me”. Fagan, now coaching the Brisbane Lions, released a statement categorically denying the allegations against him. Burt last week released a statement to “categorically deny the conduct attributed to me in the media”.
Kennett said the issues were historic and called on any Hawthorn employees to tell the club at the time if they believed there was inappropriate behaviour.
The one thing the investigation showed was that we have a safe cultural workplace now. So these are issues of the past.
Kennett said he hoped there could be some form of mediation so any issues could be resolved quickly. At the end of his speech, Kennett insisted the Hawks would “overcome” the issue.
Understand this as being a bump along the highway but … it is an important bump and it has to be dealt with professionally.
– with AAP
Anti-corruption commission won’t be an ‘exercise in political pay-back’ – Dreyfus
On Mark Dreyfus’ interview on ABC Insiders, the attorney general was asked about the sports rorts scandal and gave his view of what occurred saying: “I thought it was a rort on any view.”
I thought the idea that a decision made in the prime minister’s office when he had no power over the matter with 51 coloured spreadsheets revealed by the auditor general, that looked pretty corrupt to me, but it won’t be my decision. It will be a matter for this independent commissioner to decide if someone refers a matter to her or him, to decide.
Dreyfus made very clear that it wouldn’t be up to him to decide whether the affair was investigated by the new national anti-corruption commission saying he wanted to “make it clear” that “this is not an exercise in political pay-back”.
This is a very large integrity reform that’s been described as the single biggest reform for decades. It’s not partisan. It’s there to improve standards in Australian public life. We are not setting this up to go after our political opponents. It won’t be for me to decide if something is corrupt – it will be for this commission.
On Hawthorn, Dreyfus won’t be drawn on whether the allegations require an independent inquiry:
These are shocking allegations, David. These abuses of power in sport, which we’ve seen not just in not ball, the AFL, but in other sports, are a real concern. That’s going from junior to elite.
The sports minister talked on Friday about a new division within Sports Integrity Australia. I think that will be a start. At the moment, the AFL are conducting an independent inquiry.
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