Australia news live: Medibank hacker demands ‘US$1 per customer’ ransom; ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in navy patrol boats | Australia news

‘Safe harbour’ mechanism needed to boost company confidence to disclose cyber-attacks, opposition says

Patterson says the director general the Australian Signals Directorate, Rachel Noble, is “very supportive” of his proposal for a “safe harbour” mechanism to allow companies to disclose data attacks without immediate fear of legal ramifications.

Before estimates this week, I discussed with the director general the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Rachel Noble, whether or not some kind of safe harbour is needed so that in a crisis companies have confidence that they can share information with ASD to help deal with the threat in the immediate aftermath of an attack before they have to start worrying about legal ramifications from the privacy commissioner and others. And Rachel Noble was very supportive of that idea.

It’s an idea that’s been put to me by industry because they say they are anxious that their companies will think twice about whether they should cooperate to defeat the threat because they’re worried about those legal ramifications and those fines. And, if that is the case, that’s very unproductive and it will stall or an effective response to these crises.

Opposition says if new Medicare card numbers needed, government should pay

The shadow minister for cyber security and countering foreign interference, James Paterson, follows Bill Shorten on ABC radio, giving his two cents on this latest news of the Medibank data leak.

Paterson says he welcomes the measures the government has put in place, including supporting state police.

He goes on to say there are “other things that government will need to contemplate in the coming days and weeks”:

My No 1 focus today is Medibank customers who will be very distressed by the news that their data appears to be leaked on the web by the hackers. They’ve made good on their threat, unfortunately. This is the worst-case scenario.

There are other things that government will need to contemplate in the coming days and weeks. For example, as we saw in the Optus case, where the government issued identification, like Medicare numbers need to be reissued. If that’s the case, that should be done free and, it should be done promptly.

Shorten urges victims of data breach to ‘contact us’ to replace government ID

NDIS minister Bill Shorten is asked about data breaches after the latest Medibank leak as part of his ABC Radio interview.

Shorten supports Medibank not giving into ransom demands, saying this would “incentivise it happening”:

In terms of people whose ID is compromised, where it’s government identification, contact us, so we can help replace it and help change it.

Patricia Karvelas:

Will that be free of charge?

Shorten:

Yes, for the person.

‘US$1 per customer’: Medibank ransom claim

Coalition’s staff cap has fuelled lack of payment integrity, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to criticise the NDIS staff cap implemented by the Coalition government:

When there were 180,000 participants in the scheme, the staff numbers were around 3,500 to 4,000. And the government of the day said, ‘OK, no more staff.’

Now the scheme has half a million people-plus, and what’s happened is that we’ve brought in contractors or labour hire or partners in the community and the scheme hasn’t been well, in my opinion, supervised and well loved.

And as a result you know, the payment system. I don’t think there’s sufficient scrutiny on the invoices that gets submitted for services which are provided.

We’re going to have to put more effort into payment integrity, more effort into monitoring the invoices.

‘It was to be a 50/50 split’

RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas asks Bill Shorten if that means he thinks some of those kids shouldn’t be on the NDIS.

Shorten:

I don’t blame someone for seeking to get support for the child. What does make me wonder is the state school systems providing the support for kids with developmental and learning delays? Are they doing enough or not? How can you force their hand to do it so that these people aren’t going on the NDIS?

Originally, when the NDIS was created, it was to be a 50/50 split, at the moment the federal government is paying 64% to 66% of the scheme and states are paying in the mid 30s.

NDIS ‘can’t be the only lifeboat in the ocean’, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to say that the distribution of responsibilities for funding needs to be distributed more evenly with other bodies like state governments stepping up, so the burden doesn’t only fall on the government scheme:

I also think there’s a challenge with the state’s what’s happened is now the NDIS exists, everything becomes an NDIS matter. It can’t afford to be the only lifeboat in the ocean for people with a disability.

[The NDIS] was designed for the most profoundly and severely impaired Australians, not for everyone with a disability.

All of the coverage of it looks at the cost and that’s legitimate, but it’s not cost in a vacuum. We are seeing improvements is half a million people who for the first time in many cases, most cases are receiving support, which previously fell to a crisis-driven system. So this is an investment and it’s delivering good returns with more kids getting better results in terms of our education. There’s more people with disabilities participating in work. We’re seeing improvement in terms of the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people and their families.

Bill Shorten addresses NDIS cost blowouts

The minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, is speaking to ABC Radio this morning about those cost blowouts to the disability scheme of up to $100bn a year predicted in last month’s budget.

ABC Radio asks Shorten if the rapid growth in participants has been driving the blowouts:

The scheme hasn’t been well managed in the nine years. There’s a variety of reasons why the scheme is growing at the rate it is.

There are certainly more kids coming onto the scheme than was originally forecast. So that’s true. But just the point about those kids, they tend to be pretty minimal cost.

So, it is a factor but I don’t think it’s the only feature, what I do think is that there has been clunky decision making within the organisation, there’s been a lack of attention on the payment side … In other words, what service providers are charging, who’s taken the scheme for a lend?

My focus is not that people with disabilities, profound disabilities, are doing the wrong thing. They’re not. I do think there is rent-seeking behaviour by some providers, and not all of them, but some of them.

Defence reveals ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in Pacific patrol boats

Daniel Hurst

Workplace relations minister attacks Dutton’s amendment

The House of Representatives is due cast votes this morning on the government’s IR bill, including an amendment from opposition leader Peter Dutton to reintroduce the previous government’s changes to the “better off overall” test.

Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has taken to social media to criticise the amendment, saying it would only cut wages.

Small business pulls support for Labor IR bill

Paul Karp

Flood warnings

Good morning! Natasha May on deck with you now.

NSW and Victoria continue to face a weeks-long flood emergency.

In NSW, the far west of the state could see flooding while in Victoria, new watch and act warnings have been issued overnight. The full list of warnings in Victoria are available here.

Gas prices ‘expected to rise again’

With energy bills front and centre in consumers’ minds, it’s also clear that they are central to thinking in Martin Place right now as well.

RBA deputy governor Michele Bullock said in a speech last night that the situation in Europe remained clouded in uncertainty, AAP reports:

While gas prices have declined lately, they are expected to rise again, particularly if there is an unusually cold winter or Russia’s war on Ukraine escalates further.

Speaking in Sydney, Bullock said high global energy prices boost Australia’s export earnings as a major coal and gas exporter – but also put upwards pressure on prices.

The government has flagged regulatory intervention in the energy markets to keep gas and electricity prices down, after the October budget revealed they are expected to soar by a combined 50% over the next two financial years.

Bullock said the bank had built a substantial hike in energy prices into its outlook for the economy but said “there is a risk we haven’t incorporated enough”:

On the other side of the coin, however, global supply chain pressures are easing quite quickly and that could turn out to be more of a dampening force than we are currently expecting.

Skyrocketing rents were another area of inflationary concern, she said.

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