Australia politics live: Optus CEO says ‘we are not the villains’ in data breach; anti-sexual harassment at work bill to be introduced

Jacqui Lambie says she made a mistake voting for stage three tax cuts

Jacqui Lambie voted for the stage three tax cuts. When Labor was considering voting against the package, the Coalition worked to court enough crossbenchers to get the bill across the line (meaning it would pass either way).

Labor ended up voting for the package. But Lambie says she made a mistake in supporting the package and has now made that clear in the senate.

Updated at 18.53 EDT

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There are still 42,000 claims for assistance which veterans are waiting to be processed. Matt Keogh said that the government is working on expediting those claims, but it will take time – into next year.

It’s a really difficult situation. It’s why we have taken on doing this triage processing and trying to prioritise those claims where people are most at risk or families are most at risk of those veterans so that those who do find themselves in the worst situations can get their claims processed more quickly than that. And yes, it is an unacceptable situation that we’ve now found ourselves in where there are 40,000-odd claims that are sitting in a backlog in addition to the 20,000‑odd claims that we try to process every year through the department. And obviously we need to massively increase our rate of processing. The fact that this situation has been allowed to eventuate because of a lack of resourcing being provided to the department is terrible. It’s part of what I’ve apologised for in the Parliament yesterday.

The important thing is that we are now taking the action necessary, employing the additional staff, implementing systems to make processing more efficient so we can get through this as quickly as possible, and making sure that those veterans that are in the harder situations get their claims prioritised.

As part of his statement on the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide to the house yesterday, Matt Keogh apologised to veterans and their families for how they have been treated. It was part of the government’s response to the interim report handed down by the commission.

On ABC RN Breakfast this morning, he was asked why saying sorry was so important:

I think an apology is important because part of the issue that veterans and serving personnel and their families, especially the loved ones of those who have taken their own life, have been grappling with is being heard and feeling like they’re being heard and having an acknowledgment that the way in which these agencies have operated has in some cases in no way been appropriate. And it’s important to acknowledge that to provide that recognition and to own up to the fact that the way these things have turned out, the way some of these agencies have operated at times has not been appropriate.

Labor’s Peter Khalil has also been speaking on the Optus data breach. He told Sky News this morning:

The security breach, which we know the minister has pointed out, rests with Optus. We shouldn’t be expecting this kind of breach of this nature from a large telecommunications company and we’re obviously doing everything we can do to support Optus through the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Signals Directorate to provide that support. But also our law enforcement and other agencies are monitoring all of this and investigating it and making sure that, you know, especially if people try by some stolen credentials, that the full force of the law is brought to bear. So it is very, very concerning.

But I just got to say one important point. I’ve heard the opposition, a conga line of shadow ministers led by Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, including James Paterson, who’s here with me today, who’ve been clutching their pearls, so to say, being critical of the Minister for Home Affairs, ‘where is she, where is the response’.

Let me tell you what the Minister of Home Affairs has been doing. She’s been fixing up a problem that is partly of their making. The previous government, the Liberal government, decided to exempt telecommunication companies from the security of critical infrastructure laws. They made that decision. It enabled this attack.

Now Optus is responsible, but of course you know that we live in a very dangerous neighbourhood. We all agree on that and that decision. And of course, the Minister for Communications was a former Optus executive, Paul Fletcher.

So they left out the telcos because the telcos said, ‘oh, we’ve got this, we can handle it’.

But of course that has meant that they have left not only the door unlocked in this dangerous neighbourhood when there’s a rise of cyber attacks and cyber criminals and so on. They’ve left it wide open. They’ve left the backdoor open and they’ve left the windows open.

Council of Financial Regulators releases quarterly statement on markets

The Council of Financial Regulators (The RBA, the Treasury, Asic and Apra) have released their quarterly statement on how markets have been behaving and have added an unusual note given the Optus data breach since the council’s 21 September meeting.

The council members, along with the ACCC and ATO, “have been liaising closely”, as you’d hope.

“Council members are also working closely with financial institutions, reinforcing the importance of cybersecurity and the ‘know your customer’ requirements,” the statement says.

The main financial condition that has changed in the past couple of quarters, of course, is the RBA’s interest rate rises.

Pressure on household budgets has increased.

At the same time, household balance sheets continue to be supported by strong conditions in the labour market, and many households accumulated larger saving buffers during the pandemic.

Business insolvencies remain below equivalent pre-Covid levels, though some sectors are experiencing challenging trading conditions.

The council will continue to closely “monitor trends in borrowing” given the economic uncertainties, the high level of household debt, the decline in housing prices and rising interest rates.

So nothing to worry too much about – yet. But, the falling Australian dollar (down below 65 US cents overnight) adds to inflationary pressures by making our imports more expensive.

In turn, investors are lately raising their expectations of how high the RBA will lift its interest rate … with another two percentage points (200 basis points) in increases now their forecast for mid-2023.

Updated at 19.58 EDT

Childcare subsidy bill to be introduced in parliament today

The education minister, Jason Clare, will introduce the early childhood education subsidy changes legislation into the parliament today.

It won’t kick in until July next year, though. He told Nine:

Childcare is expensive and it’s gone up by 41%, just in the last eight years. We promised to cut the cost of childcare; I will introduce laws to do just that today. It will cut the cost of childcare for more than a million Australian families.

We do that by increasing the subsidy so if you’re a family on [$60,000-$80,000] a year, we’ll increase the subsidy for you to 90% of those costs. It means effectively for a family on $80,000 a year, the government will provide about $14,000 a year, if you have a child going three days a week.

It’s a big investment, but we know that if childcare is more affordable, then it makes it easier for parents to go back to work, in particular mums. I think 60% of mums with kids under the age of 6 are … working part time rather than full time … it’s often because childcare is so expensive.

Updated at 19.29 EDT

Aerosmith starts playing….

Optus CEO says security breach ‘not as being portrayed’ by minister for home affairs

The CEO of Optus, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, says the company’s massive security breach was “not as being portrayed” after the minister for home affairs accused the company of leaving the “window open” for the data to be stolen.

The minister for home affairs, Clare O’Neal, described the hack as “basic” on ABC’s 7.30 program Monday evening, undermining Rosmarin’s description earliest last week as a “sophisticated attack.”

Asked about the O’Neil’s comments on ABC Radio Tuesday morning, Rosmarin thanks reporter Peter Ryan for “letting me address that misinformation”.

Rosmarin said that O’Neil’s interview with the ABC occurred before Optus’ briefing with the minister.

Rosmarin said the breach is “not what it’s made out to be” because the data was encrypted and there were “multiple levels” of protection.

She said it was not the case having an “exposed API [address] sitting out there”.

Updated at 19.14 EDT

Territory rights bill to be debated this week

The territory rights bill will be debated this week after some fancy senate footwork from independent senator, David Pocock.

The Canberra Times’ Dan Jervis-Bardy reported Pocock has agreed to put one of his motions on the back burner and support the government to sit late tonight to pass the cashless debit card legislation, in order to bring forward the territory rights legislation on the notice paper.

Updated at 19.00 EDT

Jacqui Lambie says she made a mistake voting for stage three tax cuts

Jacqui Lambie voted for the stage three tax cuts. When Labor was considering voting against the package, the Coalition worked to court enough crossbenchers to get the bill across the line (meaning it would pass either way).

Labor ended up voting for the package. But Lambie says she made a mistake in supporting the package and has now made that clear in the senate.

Updated at 18.53 EDT

In the latest news in the Optus data breach, a reported ransom demand is claiming 10,000 users will have their data leaked a day until Optus pays.

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, the CEO of Optus, told ABC Radio the Australian Federal Police were already investigating the reported ransom demand.

Rosmarin said Optus couldn’t say much as it’s being investigated but confirmed “we have seen that there is a post like that on the dark web and the Australian Federal Police is all over that”.

Updated at 18.40 EDT