Australia politics live: Chalmers flags affordable homes plan for budget; Medibank receives 1,000 customer records from hacker | Australian politics

Natasha May

Murray River expected to peak in Victoria today as flood danger continues

The Murray River is expected to peak today after several days of anticipation and high river heights for communities in the north of Victoria and border towns in southern NSW.

In Echuca, the SES says that the town is still 20cm away from reaching its flood peak which is expected this afternoon or potentially tomorrow, according to the ABC who spoke to authorities on the ground this morning.

Evacuation orders remain in place at Echuca, Echuca Village, Barmah and Lower Moira, Bunbartha and Kerang.

Overnight, the Victorian SES have warned residents of Barmah and Lower Moira it is too late to leave.

SES also issued a watch and act warning last night downstream of Euroa for Seven Creeks.

Medibank CEO David Koczkar apologised to victims of the says the cyber-attack, which he said was “committed by criminals with a view of causing maximum fear and damage”.

I unreservedly apologise to our customers who have been the victims of this serious crime.

As we continue to uncover the breadth and gravity of this crime, we recognise that these developments will be distressing for our customers, our people and the community – as it is to me.

This is a malicious attack that has been committed by criminals with a view of causing maximum fear and damage, especially to the most vulnerable members of our community.

We continue to work closely with the agencies of the Federal Government, including the ongoing criminal investigation into this matter. We thank them for their ongoing support and assistance.

Medibank will remain in a voluntary trade suspension:

For the avoidance of doubt the voluntary suspension continues until the earlier of a release of a further announcement by Medibank and commencement of normal trading on Wednesday 26 October 2022.

Medibank has released a statement to the ASX giving more details of the data breach.

The health insurer says it has received 1,000 policy records from the “criminal” and that these files include personal and health data.

Medibank says it is “too soon to determine the full extent of the customer data that has been stolen” and the company expects the number of affected customers to grow.

The company will also announced a customer support package that includes mental health and wellbeing support, support for customers who are in uniquely vulnerable positions and access to specialist identity protection advice.

Medibank says:

We have received a series of additional files from the criminal. We have been able to determine that this includes: 

A copy of the file received last week containing 100 ahm policy records – including personal and health claims data 

A file of a further 1,000 ahm policy records – including personal and health claims data 

Files which contain some Medibank and additional ahm and international student customer data

Given the complexity of what we have received, it is too soon to determine the full extent of the customer data that has been stolen.

We will continue to analyse what we have received to understand the total number of customers impacted, and specifically which information has been stolen.

We have taken the step of making this announcement as we believe it is important to notify our customers of this development.

As we continue to investigate the scale of this cybercrime, we expect the number of affected customers to grow as this unfolds.

What we are doing now

Medibank is assisting the AFP in its ongoing investigation.

Today we will announce a comprehensive customer support package, which will include: 

24/7 mental health and wellbeing support 

Support for customers who are in uniquely vulnerable positions 

Access to specialist identity protection advice with IDCARE for all customers Given the distress this crime is causing our customers we will also defer premium increases for Medibank and ahm customers until 16 January 2023.

Last week, we began directly contacting affected customers to provide support and guidance on what to do next.

As a result of today’s update, we will begin contacting current and former customers to recommend steps they could take. We will also begin contacting customers whose data we now know has been compromised.

Narrabri ordered to evacuate as flood waters rise in northern NSW

Natasha May

We will be breaking into the political coverage today to keep you updated on the floods as well:

Overnight, residents of the north west NSW town of Narrabri have been ordered to evacuate due to flooding, with the SES issuing the warnings for the town’s industrial and residential areas.

The town hit the major flood level of 6.9 metres yesterday and is expected to reach 7.4m today, as the flood waters from the Narrabri Creek move through.

Yesterday afternoon the NSW SES deputy commissioner Daniel Austin said 139 warnings were current across the state, including 18 emergency warnings where community members were told to evacuate or move to higher ground.

Parts of Lismore are seeing flooding yet again, but not on the catastrophic scale seen earlier in the year. Lower north Lismore was ordered to evacuate before 8pm by the SES last night.

The NSW emergency services minister Steph Cooke said this morning the threat of flooding remains and would continue “for days to come.”

The rivers are very, very full and, of course, our dams are mostly at full capacity at present. So, even the smallest rainfall can cause an elevated risk of flash flooding and riverine flooding. We will see rivers decline, but the risk is real.

We are bracing for another wet weather system into the state on the weekend.

Jim Chalmers says one of the things in the budget will be more detail on the government, working with the states and the private sector, building up to 1m new affordable homes.

Chalmers:

As as I move around Australia consulting with local communities, workers and employers, one of the big challenges we have in our country and economy is that it’s harder and harder for people to grab the opportunities of low unemployment if they can’t live near where the opportunities are. I’ve made that a big priority. I have consulted widely.

I want to thank the superannuation industry and the institutional investors, my counterparts in the states and territories. I want to thank the building industry for engaging with us over the course of recent weeks and months. It’s a high priority for us to get more affordable housing, closer to where the jobs and opportunities are. You will hear more tonight.

Labor had promised to create a $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund at the election, with the promise to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years. There is no detail yet on the time frame for the other homes, but I guess they need to save some things for tonight.

Jim Chalmers has begun his first press conference of the day:

There are Australians in flood affected communities doing it especially tough today.

They are in our thoughts and in the thoughts of all Australians as they deal with these natural disasters which come with alarming regularity.

Australians are there for people when they do things tough and the Albanese government will be there for them.

This government will be solid, sensible and suited to the times.

It will recognise in a time of extreme global uncertainty our best defence is a responsible budget at home.

It will understand, that even these economic pressures are coming from around interest world, they are felt most acutely around the kitchen table.

Inflation will be the primary influence on the budget I hand down tonight. The budget has three objectives: responsible cost of living relief, strengthening the economy, and beginning the hard yards of budget repair.

Chalmers says there are “welcome and substantial improvements in the near term”.

That will not make up for the persistent structural spending pressures on the budget.

What we’ve been able to do with our responsible approach to these revenue upgrades is to ensure that there will be less debt over the forward estimates than our predecessors had, but we will have more to show for it.

This budget will buffer us against global uncertainty, but it will also begin to lay the foundations of a stronger, more modern and more resilient economy as well. This budget will do more than batten the hatches against global uncertainty.

It will back in families and begin to build a better future that Australians need, deserve. This budget is for Australians who battle through hard times and believe in a better future and we will keep faith with them tonight.

Welcome to budget day!

It’s the second budget of the year but the first for Jim Chalmers who has come to the treasury portfolio determined to change things.

And so, he has spent the months since the election laying out Australia’s economic position. There have been treasury updates galore as Chalmers sets out the case for why Labor won’t be doing all people expect in this first budget. What Labor will be doing has been announced ahead of time – changes to paid parental leave, the childcare subsidy changes, cheaper medicines.

But there will be no raising the jobseeker rate beyond the indexation changes, no huge cost of living relief, and no big new social programs.

And no changes to the stage-three tax cuts. In this budget, at least.

So that’s the big show from 1.30pm, when the lock-up begins, before the budget is launched tonight.

Meanwhile, parliament will sit as normal and the government will introduce its industrial relations bill where a big fight is brewing with the Coalition and the business community over multi-employer bargaining. We’ll also see the privacy laws introduced, which will be less of a fight given how fresh Optus and Medibank’s data breaches are in everyone’s minds.

We’ll cover it all off as it happens and keep you updated while the Canberra team enter the budget lock up.

Ready? It’s going to be at least a five coffee day.

Let’s get into it.