Telstra staff data breach
Josh Taylor
While all focus is on Optus, Telstra too is dealing with its own, much smaller, data breach, after the names and email addresses of 30,000 current and former Telstra staff were posted on the same forum the Optus breach was posted on last week.
In a note to staff on Saturday, Telstra’s group executive for transformation, communications and people, Alex Badenoch, said the data breach was of a third party that had previously provided Telstra’s Worklife NAB rewards program for staff.
The data, dating back to 2017, contained the first names, last names and work email addresses of 30,000 Telstra employees who worked for the company prior to 2017, with 12,800 of those still employed by the telco.
Telstra is working with the third party company to figure out how the breach occurred.
She said:
We understand this may cause some anxiety to our people, particularly in the current climate of heightened awareness around cyber security.
If you wish to find out more about the breach, or to find out if your email address was exposed, please contact our cyber team…In the meantime, we remind you as always to remain vigilant about any unexpected communications.
The executive said that the company’s current rewards program had not been compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, the passwords of all users had been reset.
Key events
From AAP:
A coroner has enlisted the help of a weather expert and key witnesses as part of an ongoing investigation into the jumping castle tragedy that killed six children in Tasmania.
Tasmania Police have provided a “large volume” of evidence to Coroner Olivia McTaggart, in an effort to determine what went wrong during the fatal accident at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport last year.
The coroner has engaged a weather expert to provide an opinion on the weather conditions on the day and a final report is expected soon.
Other evidence submitted to the coronial inquiry includes forensic reports along with video and photographic material.
A case management conference will be held at Devonport Magistrates Court on October 18 and the investigation could take up to 12 months to conclude.
Doctors’ seven-point plan promises more affordable GP visits
Good afternoon everyone – this is Cait Kelly and I will be with you for the rest of the day.
We are expecting the RBA to make an announcement on the cash rate before 3pm – I will of course bring you that as soon as it comes.
But first, I have this from AAP:
Australians are being promised more affordable doctors’ visits as part of a pitch to overhaul the way general practitioners work.
The Australian Medical Association says its seven-point plan, to be put forward at a crisis summit on Wednesday, will revitalise the general practice sector, making it a once again desirable career for young doctors.
The plan calls for the indexation of Medicare to be improved so doctors can spend more time with patients and get more back in their rebates, in keeping with rising costs.
The association wants changes to the GP training program to make the field more appealing, and support for GPs to care for patients with chronic wounds.
The plan would support GPs to care for aged-care residents, expand the number of nurses and allied health services available in practices and help doctors deliver more after-hours care.
It would also introduce a voluntary patient enrolment scheme so patients could register with their GP to bolster coordinated, multidisciplinary and patient-centred care, according to the association.
Natasha May
Hope your Tuesday is treating you well! The fabulous Cait Kelly will now see you through the rest of the day’s news.
Anti-war protests as Brisbane hosts weapons expo
Weapons manufacturers from across Australia and around the world are gathering at Brisbane’s convention and exhibition centre, where the International Land Defence Exposition is being held over the next three days.
Protesters have been gathering for several days, the ABC reports, in response not only to the conference itself but also Australia’s record levels of military spending.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge spoke at the protests today:
We’re here to say that the narrative of inevitable conflict, the idea that more and more of our public wealth needs to be spent on weapons is a narrative we need to fight against. So Greens MPs, state and federal, will be speaking about true security, long-term security, fighting the climate disaster, building those connections, building multilateral initiatives for peace. That’s how we build security. What’s happening in there, with multinational corporations seeking to have ever more of our collective wealth on weapons that will create insecurity, is the real crime.
Australia’s defence has several big projects in the works beyond the now infamous nuclear submarines, there are also joint strike fighter aircraft and old armoured personnel carriers being replaced with new infantry vehicles.
Despite delays to many of these projects, Australia needs to speed up defence procurement, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, told the conference:
While we have begun by delivering on our election commitment for a defence force strategic review, as you know, it’s led by former minister for defence Prof Stephen Smith and the former chief of the defence force Sir Angus Houston. Work is well under way. Their review will shape our investments for the ADF to deal with current and future strategic circumstances for Australia in the Indo-Pacific region. It will ensure defence’s capability and force structure is fit for purpose.
Peter Hannam
Job ads show demand for staff is holding up
Also ahead of the RBA rates decision, ANZ has just posted its data on job ads, and it’s another sign of resilience in the economy to those interest rate rises.
Another sign that the economy is chugging along despite the series of RBA rate rise is the steady number of job ads, as compiled by @ANZ_Research. They note a similar story exists in NZ and they started rate hikes 7 months earlier. pic.twitter.com/qY3L24uLWE
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 4, 2022
The tally of job ads has barely budged from its June peak despite five RBA rate rises and a sixth expected within hours.
In fact, the number remains more than 56% higher than pre-pandemic times – reinforcing the distinct sense that of all the estimates that forecasts got wrong when Covid arrived, the labour market seems like exhibit A.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise that ANZ Job Ads is holding up so well several months into the rate hike cycle,” the ANZ’s senior economist, Catherine Birch, said. “New Zealand’s job ads series, Jobs Online, is yet to turn down, despite the RBNZ commencing tightening seven months earlier than the RBA.”
In general terms, there’s still a job opening for every person who is unemployed.
What does that mean for the RBA? Well, Birch says the ads and other leading indicators are “still so strong” that the RBA may have to take the cash rate even higher “into restrictive territory” to slow demand growth.
For now, ANZ is predicting the RBA will raise the cash rate from 2.35% now (but not much longer) to 3.35%. Perhaps the ANZ will have to lift its forecast after 2.30pm and the central bank’s latest verdict. We will know soon enough.
Tamsin Rose
NSW government in contact with emergency services as state prepares for flooding
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has been in “regular contact” with the emergency services minister ahead of predicted flooding later in the week.
He says it is going to be “a very difficult time right around the country” with more wet weather on the way and urges residents to listen to emergency warnings.
Speaking at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday morning, Perrottet said:
My clear message today, as we’re about to go through a very difficult week of heavy rainfall, is please follow the instructions of our state emergency services.
If there’s an evacuation warning in place, please prepare to evacuate.
Please do not drive through flood waters.
It’s going to be a difficult time but we’ve got through the last flooding together and we’ll get through this together on the basis that everyone follows those instructions.
He says SES resources are going to where they are most needed.
Police hunt four men and a woman after Brisbane shooting
Four men and a woman are allegedly on the run after a man was shot dead in the front yard of a home in south-west Brisbane, AAP reports.
The 38-year-old man died after being struck once in the chest at close range at the home in Oxley in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Det Supt Andrew Massingham alleged that four men and a woman armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, and potentially a handgun, were involved.
He told reporters on Tuesday:
The male deceased was struck at very close range, and we believe the weapon involved was a 12-gauge shotgun.
Massingham said the man had been sitting in a car near the home when the five turned up and allegedly started assaulting another man who lived at the home.
The 38-year-old then got out of his car and started running to the man’s aid when he was shot.
The second man has suffered minor injuries and is being questioned by police.
Police are probing an alleged dispute between the two men and the five suspects one to two weeks before the shooting.
Massingham said:
Certainly there was significant conflict amongst the whole group.
He said the alleged dispute was not related to a number of recent gang shootings in the city’s south.
The attack lasted about 30-40 seconds and he said that neighbours heard more than one shot being fired.
Detectives are still hunting for the five, and are reviewing CCTV footage of a car leaving the scene, which is across the road from a primary school.
Peter Hannam
Housing approvals and home loans mixed in latest ABS data
Ahead of the RBA’s rate decision this afternoon, there’s some economic data to chew over from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
One set deals with building approvals, which are a sign of future work to come, amid the slew of rate rises we’ve had already – and the expectation the RBA has more hikes ahead.
So, the total number of dwellings approved bounced back, with a 28.1% increase in August reversing July’s 18.2% retreat.
Australia’s building approvals jumped in August despite the on-going increases in interest rates (that the RBA began in May). Almost all of the 28.1% rise for the month in new dwellings approved were for apartments, with private sector housing up 4.1%, ABS said. pic.twitter.com/F8SC7aAnh3
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 4, 2022
Most of the rise came from approvals for new apartments. There was roughly a doubling tally in “approvals for private sector dwellings excluding housing” for the month, the ABS said.
That number at 6,766 approvals, though, seems a bit chunky since the July figure for “other residential dwellings” approved was the lowest since January 2012.
Approvals for houses were more stable, with the number,10,459, rising 4.1% in August compared with a 0.8% increase in the previous month.
From a year earlier, housing approvals were down more than 14% while those for flats were off 1.2%.
Other data for housing from the ABS offered another view of how the economy is going. The value of new loan commitments for housing dropped 3.4% to $27.4bn in August, easing from the 8.5% decline in July, the ABS said.
Housing loan commitments fell 3.4% in August, half the pace of July’s drop, ABS said. Loans for owner-occupiers sank 2.7% compared a 4.8% decline for investor loans. (Versus pre-Covid times, owner-occupier loans are still 36% up, and investor loans 70% higher.) pic.twitter.com/2FjLuFZB8I
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 4, 2022
Investors were more skittish than owner-occupiers in their borrowing activity, with the former taking out 4.8% less in loan commitments, or $8.85bn for the month, compared with the 2.7% decline for new owner-occupier loans at $18.54bn.
While both gauges are down from a year earlier, owner-occupier loans remain 36% higher than February 2020, when the Covid pandemic got going, while investor loans are up 70%.
It’s also interesting that personal and business borrowing tallies were also up in August.
In seasonally adjusted terms (as all the above numbers are), total fixed-term personal finance rose 9.5% in August, while loans to buy vehicles rose 17.7%, with both measures building on increases in July.
On those latter measures at least, higher borrowing costs thanks to the RBA are yet to dent demand – which suggests their work is not yet done.
Angus Taylor defends stage-three tax cuts after UK government’s U-turn
Taylor was also asked – given the news out of the UK where the government has done a U-turn on unpopular tax cuts – whether the stage-three tax cuts the Morrison government legislated should be revised.
However, the shadow treasurer says he does not accept those tax cuts are the wrong call in this new economic environment.
This is not until 2024. We want to see growth. It’s so important that we see growth in the Australian economy. That means that we have a stronger budget. We can provide the services that Australians need. And so, we do want to see … We do want to see the tax cuts coming through. They’re very different from the UK tax cuts.
The ABC points out they’re still tax cuts that are going to benefit the wealthy. Taylor responds:
This is a very big tax bracket that’s covered by the tax cuts. It’s not the top tax bracket. It’s very different from the UK. We haven’t seen anything like the reaction from the markets that we saw in the UK. So I think drawing that analogy, which I know some in Labor are doing, I think, is very inappropriate. They are not the same thing. But we do have to see both a longer term focus on growth and making sure that there’s the incentive for businesses and people to get out there and invest and work and take risk and all of those things that you need to have a strong economy. But at the same time, in the short term, we need to see pressure taken off interest rates and inflation. And getting that balance right is crucial. Longer term tax cuts make sense, but at the same time, a responsible budget in the coming weeks is absolutely crucial to take pressure off interest rates, take pressure off the cost of living. We know many Australians are really starting to see the pain of these interest rate increases and government can make a real difference and prevent those further increases from otherwise happening.
Push and pull between government and RBA is bad for economy’s engine, shadow treasurer says
Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer, spoke to the ABC this morning from the town of Blayney in NSW’s central west where he is part of the 23rd “pollie pedal” cycling through regional NSW in support of not-for-profit veteran support organisation Solider On.
Taylor was asked about the RBA rate hike expected later today which is tipped to see the sixth interest rate lift in as many months.
If it is what’s expected today, we’re going to see Australians with a typical mortgage paying more than $1,000 a month more than they were earlier in the year. So this is a really big hit on Australians. Obviously, the Reserve Bank is independent. They have to make their own decisions. But what’s critical is that this government policy that means that they can put the least possible pressure on interest rates.
We do want to see a clear plan. We do want to see government policy that’s accommodating to the Reserve Bank so that they don’t have to raise interest rates as much as they otherwise would. That means a responsible budget in the coming week; that’s enormously important to ensure that the Reserve Bank doesn’t go as far as it otherwise would have to.
When asked about what he thought about the chances of a recession, Taylor said:
it’s very clear there are risks. Very real risks.
That’s why it’s so important that there be a plan from the government coming in this budget or a responsible budget to ensure that they done have to go as far as they otherwise would.
If the government is spending large amounts of money that otherwise wouldn’t have been spent, they’re putting the foot on the accelerator and the Reserve Bank has to put the foot on the brake. And the foot on the brake and the foot on the accelerator is bad for the engine and that’s why it is so important that we see a responsible budget.
‘No-gap fee’ private hospital opened in Melbourne’s east
Dr Monique Ryan – Fed Independent for Kooyong & Deputy Opposition Leader Georgie Crozier help launch a new “no-gap fee” private hospital in Melb’s east. Doctors and Medibank are funding the new health facility pic.twitter.com/0RoEiUqGyD
— Emily Rice (@EmilyRice28) October 4, 2022
Alcott wants more support for people living with a disability not on the NDIS
Australian of the Year, Dylan Alcott today delivered a new report into the National Disability Insurance Scheme to the minister for the scheme, Bill Shorten.
The report recommends placing more people with disability in leadership positions. Alcott has also said investment in the NDIS benefits both participants and the economy.
He encourages all people to read this support, he told the ABC this morning, because:
We have to get away from get talking about the NDIS where it is a costly pain … when it is really an incredible scheme benefiting so many people.
But there are areas where it can be improved to maximise the benefit. There about 500,000 people on the NDIS, but there are 5 million people in this country with some form of physical or non-physical disability not on the scheme.
We are calling for community, mainstream support, federal and state government to gather around us so they can get the support they need to get be the best versions of themselves and get access to all the benefits. The care and whatever else they need.
Victoria pushes regional social housing build
Victoria’s government will give $219m to community housing agencies for planning and construction of nearly 50 social housing projects across the state’s regional areas.
The housing minister, Danny Pearson, today announced the grants from the social housing growth fund.
Seventeen community housing agencies will receive funding for 46 projects to deliver up to 683 homes in regional Victoria.
Pearson told reporters in Delacombe in Ballarat:
This is about making sure that we’ve got social and affordable housing throughout regional Victoria, to make sure that people get the housing they need, where they need it, and when they need it.
The sites were chosen in areas of high growth and demand, following community housing agency bids assessed by Housing Victoria.
The state government has allocated $1.25bn of its $5.3bn big housing build program to regional Victoria.
Seven of the 46 projects will include new homes for Aboriginal Victorians.
Victorian vacancy rates are down to 3.6% in Melbourne and 2.1% in regional Victoria, according to Homes Victoria data.
Last week the Council to Homeless Persons called on political parties to commit to building 6,000 social properties each year for 10 years and bolster the homelessness prevention worker numbers. Chief executive Jenny Smith said:
More renters are being pushed into homelessness because they can’t find a rental they can afford.
Victoria’s opposition said a Coalition government would immediately move to fast-track land and partnerships with housing associations, not-for-profits and the superannuation industry.
The shadow minister for housing, Richard Riordan, said the Andrews government had proven over eight years it had no capacity to solve the housing crisis in regional Victoria and an announcement of 683 homes would “not put a scuff mark on the priority waiting list”.
Peter Hannam
Consumers take fright as turmoil worries hit home
We can’t read too much into a weekly survey, but it’s worth noting the latest survey of consumer sentiment by ANZ and Roy Morgan might also get a look in when the RBA board meets (perhaps during morning tea over pastries and sannies).
Anyway, confidence hit a snag in the last week, with the main measure retreating 2.6% (from already low levels, historically).
David Plank, ANZ’s head of Australian economics, said:
A plethora of negative news last week ranging from the UK’s mini budget to hawkish Fed commentary impacted the Australian dollar, which weakened to its two-year lows [against the US dollar].
Meanwhile, the other important component in the weekly report – which would be of interest to the RBA too – is the notable jump in inflation expectations.
Consumers have become more wary about rising inflation, with the weekly survey by @ANZ_Research and @RoyMorganAus showing a big jump in expectations about price rises. The 0.6 percentage point change probably had something to do with the blanket coverage of rising fuel prices. pic.twitter.com/mdypRdwJ3L
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 3, 2022
Plank rightly links it to the end of the fuel excise “holiday” last Wednesday night. What’s interesting, perhaps, is that service stations in many parts of the country were pushing up their “bowser” prices in advance of the excise change (which added back about 24 cents a litre).
Current prices in NSW, for instance, remain about 183 or so cents per litre, and Melbourne’s are sitting on an average of 190 cents. That’s not a lot different from a week ago, so perhaps the surprise is that prices haven’t risen much – so far.
The ACCC, too, has fuel prices in the major cities flat or lower than a week ago. Go figure.
How can the government protect Hunter Valley species while continuing to approve fossil fuel projects?
Just circling back to some of the questions Plibersek faced in her press conference following the release of the threatened species plan in Sydney.
Reporter:
There are a number of proposals to expand and reopen mines in the Hunter Valley. Is today’s announcement a blanket no from your government that species could be threatened?
Plibersek:
It’s absolutely not a blanket no. But we know that our environmental laws at the moment are not fit for purpose. Our environmental laws at the moment are slow and cumbersome for business, and don’t give plants and animals and landscapes the protections they need. So we do need to reform our environmental laws.
Professor Graham Samuel did a very thorough review of the environmental protection and biodiversity conservation act for the previous government. He made a number of very important recommendations. We’re working through the recommendations at the moment and our government will provide a response to the Samuel Review by the end of the year.
We’ll use that response to inform the redesign of our environmental laws. We’ll introduce those new laws into the Parliament next year. But right now, we know that our environmental laws aren’t working. They’re not working for business. And they’re not working for the environment. We need to do better.
Plibersek was then asked about a new species of lizard was found in Muswellbrook (a legless lizard named the Hunter Valley delma) and how the government will manage the protection of this species and others in the Hunter while approving coalmine projects.
The minister said she won’t be commenting on individual projects today, but she would say this:
We need to work cooperatively with state and territory governments to better protect our environment. Yes, to give faster decisions on projects, but also to better protect our environment. And I think that there’s a lot of goodwill and a lot of willingness there.
Australians made it very plain at the last election that they care about the environment. You see the number of people who volunteer and donate to environmental organisations, that Australians care about the environment.
I think that state governments realise that and I’m very much looking forward to working in partnership with state governments to protect our precious places.
Severe weather warnings for heavy rainfall issued across eastern states
Severe Weather Warning for HEAVY RAINFALL affecting people in Riverina, Lower Western, Upper Western and parts of Central West Slopes and Plains Forecast Districts which may lead to FLASH FLOODING.
Current warnings: https://t.co/rc2Q43Zx0H for more information. pic.twitter.com/0HvMMgvcI4
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) October 3, 2022
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