Richard Marles meets Nauru’s new president – as it happened

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Optus not forthcoming on breach, Tanya Plibersek says

A federal minister has slammed Optus for not being forthcoming with either customers or the government more than a week on from the cyber attack, AAP reports.

One of the real problems is the lack of communication by Optus, both with its customers and the government.

I don’t think the company is doing a particularly good job with its customers or providing the government with the information we need to keep people safe.

Those in the know say it wasn’t a very sophisticated way to get into the Optus information.

Why can’t they protect your privacy and get back to people and say we have a real problem here and be careful?

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Australian children rescued from Syrian camps need tailored support to reintegrate into society, expert says

Shane Healey urges government to establish holistic and ‘individualised’ process for kids who spent formative years in violent conditions

A former ADF Special Operations intelligence analyst who is now an expert on countering violent extremism says Australian children brought out of Syrian refugee camps will require intensive support to successfully integrate into the community.

“It’s a long, intensive and individualised process but, done holistically, will have excellent results,” Shane Healey said. “Australia has the capability and the expertise to support these children.”

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Majority of Australians back sound economic management over keeping promised tax cuts, survey suggests

Almost half of those polled support axing stage three cuts while one quarter thought they should be kept

Support for the stage three tax cuts remains low with the majority of Australians backing sound economic management over sticking to election promises, a new survey suggests.

The research from the Australia Institute found that high-income earners were particularly likely to support the repeal of the stage three tax cuts, despite being the main beneficiaries of the changes.

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Current cybersecurity laws ‘absolutely useless’, Clare O’Neil says – as it happened

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On Optus, Dreyfus describes the incident as a “wake-up call for corporate Australia” and flags changes to the Privacy Act.

Keeping the very personal data of customers who had ceased to be customers years ago. I have yet to hear a reason why that was going on. And Optus failed to keep the information safe.

Companies throughout Australia should stop regarding all of this personal data of Australians as an asset to them, they should think of it as a liability. This is a wake-up call for corporate Australia.

We will look very hard at the settings in the Privacy Act. I may be bringing reforms to the Privacy Act before the end of the year, to try to both toughen penalties and make companies think harder about why they are storing the personal data of Australians.

That report this morning is simply, in in one of newspapers is wrong. Union officials are not excluded. Any third party seeking to adversely affect public decisions making in corrupt way will be subject to investigation by the commission.

The activities set up under this bill for this commission are directed at the public sector in Australia. It’s not directed at private activity. It’s directed at the public sector and is interaction third parties have with public officials, adversely affecting the way they go about their duties in a formal, honest manner.

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Select group of Optus customers should cancel licences and passports immediately, minister says

Clare O’Neil says Optus has emailed 10,200 customers who had their records posted online after 10 million people affected in larger cyber hack

The 10,200 Optus customers who had their personal records posted online last week in the wake of the telco’s massive data breach should immediately cancel their driver’s licences and passports, the federal government says.

Optus has written to the 10,200 customers exposed last Monday after 10 million Australians had their records stolen from the telco a week earlier.

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Anti-corruption body could examine Scott Morrison over Coalition’s ‘sports rorts’, Labor suggests

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus insists new commission ‘is not an exercise in political payback’ and says it could tap phones of federal politicians

The new federal anti-corruption body could investigate Scott Morrison and the Coalition’s sports rorts scandal, the attorney general has said, while conceding some legal experts are opposed to holding public hearings only in “exceptional circumstances”.

Mark Dreyfus said on Sunday the proposed National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) would be able to tap politicians’ phones, including encrypted apps, as long as it had a warrant. Unions would not be exempt from the commission’s ability to interrogate third parties, he added.

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‘Socialism sucks’ stickers on display as CPAC Australia stokes fears of Indigenous voice

Speaker after speaker – after wheeling out standard complaints about progressive politicians – poured scorn on the voice concept

Saturday’s CPAC conference in Sydney showed Australia’s political right is gearing up for a fight against the government’s proposed Indigenous voice to parliament – and highlighted the potential political perils of Anthony Albanese keeping many details of the constitutional change out of the public arena for now.

The Conservative Political Action Conference filled a small corner of the International Convention Centre, bringing a mixed assortment of federal senators, rightwing media personalities and international guests together for an audience of around 900. A hodge-podge of topics boiled down to broad grievances around “cancel culture”, “shadow banning” and “wokeism”; speakers variously criticised the “conservative cowardice” of Coalition politicians, the mainstream media and talk of “white privilege”.

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Peter FitzSimons to step down as ARM chair as Abetz attacks republic campaign’s ‘elitism’

The author and journalist says his exit will pave the way for younger, more diverse voices

The chairman of the Australian Republic Movement, Peter FitzSimons, has announced he will step down from the role, paving the way for younger, more diverse voices to take the reins.

But the Australian Monarchist League says a change of leadership won’t revive the campaign or change how “elite” it is.

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Tony Abbott tells CPAC an Indigenous voice to parliament would promote ‘discrimination’

Former Australian prime minister, senator Jacinta Price and former senator Amanda Stoker attack voice at conservative conference

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed the Labor government’s proposed Indigenous voice to parliament would “institutionalise discrimination” in a speech to a conservative political conference that focused heavily on criticisms of the Aboriginal consultation body.

The Coalition senator and Warlpiri woman Jacinta Price, who also spoke at CPAC in Sydney, described the voice as “racial separatism”, telling attendees they would be “called a name” if they opposed the change. Former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker described the concept of the voice as “terrifying”.

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Peter FitzSimons to step down as ARM chair; protesters picket CPAC – as it happened

FitzSimons says a new generation is stepping up to lead republic campaign. This blog is now closed

‘I managed to crawl right under the skin of Penny Wong’: Price

Price has bragged that her first speech to parliament ended in Penny Wong fleeing the chamber.

I managed to crawl right under the skin of Penny Wong.

I put it to Wong we need to co-design an Asian voice to parliament.

So that policies that affect Asian Australians can be their responsibility and any time I need expert advice on how to better improve Wong’s life, I can consult with the Asian voice.

I thought ‘thank you Lord for strategically placing me after my Labor colleague to deliver my first speech’.

There could be no better contrast.

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Liberal party emails supporters claiming Labor wants to give noncitizens voting rights

Some noncitizens can already vote in Australia, a parliamentary committee is considering extending that to permanent residents from New Zealand

Liberal party headquarters have seized on a routine review of Australia’s most recent federal election to claim Labor wants to give noncitizens voting rights.

An email sent to Liberal party supporters has urged people to write a submission to the electoral matters parliamentary committee, claiming Labor wants to extend voting to New Zealand citizens living in Australia.

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Labor’s deal with gas exporters will lock in high prices, consumer groups say

Agreement raises concerns transition to lower emissions energy sector will be harder and more expensive

Energy user groups have condemned the Albanese government’s agreement with gas exporters saying it will lock in high prices that will force businesses to close, hurt households and hobble the transition of the electricity sector off fossil fuels.

The resource minister, Madeleine King, on Thursday said the government had signed a new agreement with the big gas exporters from eastern Australia that would ensure there was sufficient supplies to meet local demand.

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Australia’s CMO warns further Covid waves ‘highly likely’ – as it happened

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The minister for sport, Anika Wells, is speaking to ABC Radio about an announcement to expand the government’s scope to help people in sport report racism, abuse and mistreatement.

It comes after a range of high-profile cases in elite sport, including the damaging review into Hawthorn Football Club which contained allegations of serious mistreatment of First Nations former players, as well as the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report into the culture of gymnastics, the findings in Swimming Australia’s review of the treatment of female swimmers and the Do Better report.

It absolutely is concerning ... it’s shocking and certainly action will be taken.

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Stephen Smith named UK high commissioner as government flags fewer political appointments

Penny Wong defends appointing former Labor minister as a sign of the ‘eminence of Australia’s relationship with the UK’

The former Labor minister Stephen Smith has been named as Australia’s next high commissioner to the UK – but the Albanese government has yet to reveal who it will send to Washington.

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, defended the political appointment, noting that the London post had long been held by senior former ministers as a sign of the “eminence of Australia’s relationship with the United Kingdom”.

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‘I can never feel settled’: wait time for key Australian work visa more than doubles

Migrants waiting for the 887 skilled regional visa are set to protest across the country, angry at the worsening delays

Processing times for an important skilled worker visa have more than doubled and the number of migrants languishing on bridging visas has increased six-fold, a new report warns.

The Migrant Workers Centre on Friday released a report documenting the deterioration in Australia’s visa processing system, which found processing times for the 887 skilled regional visa has more than doubled since 2018.

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Labor says time is coming for republic debate as monarchists claim it’s giving itself a ‘head start’

Albanese government says Indigenous voice is its priority and any move away from monarchy is not going to come quickly

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The Albanese government has told a leading monarchist group that “the time is coming” for Australia to discuss becoming a republic, angering supporters of the British crown who claim Labor is giving itself a head start on a future referendum campaign.

But the government has also conceded that any move away from the monarchy is not going to come quickly, instead inviting monarchist groups to join the current campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

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Department admits it has ‘little information’ on pesticide residue in Australian food

In a tender advertisement published in May this year, the agriculture department said it did not have enough data on the environmental and health effects of pesticides

Federal authorities have admitted they have “little information” about the extent of pesticide residues in Australian food or their potential environmental damage, a document seen by the Guardian shows.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry called for tenders in May this year for a study to identify the gaps in Australia’s data collection on pesticides.

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News live: Australia supports inquiry into Iran death, Wong says; first majority female high court bench

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus has announced the appointment of justice Jayne Jagot to the high court. Follow the day’s news live

Queensland seeking partnerships from the federal government in renewable plan

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was asked to clarify how long the state will keep exporting coal for:

There’s still going to be countries that need our coal and, of course, the metallurgical coal [that] is needed for steel production. Let’s be clear about that. Until there’s alternative to manufacturing steel, the world will still need metallurgical coal.

The plan is $62bn. We have a $6bn down payment on that … we’ve already got $11bn worth of private investment coming in.

But there will be even more coming in as well. So roughly, it will be around, over $30bn, between $30bn and $40bn we’re providing, but we’re seeking partnerships from the federal government.

Well, in Europe, of course, there’s a lot of reliance on gas coming in from the Ukraine and parts of Russia, is my understanding.

But what we’re doing here very clearly is [ensuring] that the hydro dams get built. And then, as the hydro dams come online, that’s when you start phasing down the reliance on coal-fired power stations.

We’re building sea walls as we speak. People are having to build their houses on 7-to-12-foot stilts above the ground because of the water coming underneath. Ancestral graves that the ABC has reported on are being washed away. This is happening in Queensland. It’s not just an island on the Pacific ocean. It is happening to Queenslanders. To Australians. And we all have a duty to look after one another.

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Attorney general flags urgent privacy law changes after Optus data breach

Mark Dreyfus indicates potential reforms to laws regarding data breaches including higher penalties, mandatory precautions and customer notifications

Privacy law changes, including tougher penalties for data breaches, could be legislated as early as this year, the attorney general has said in the wake of the Optus breach.

Mark Dreyfus revealed on Thursday that in addition to completing a review of Australia’s privacy laws the Albanese government will look to legislate “even more urgent reforms” late this year or in early 2023.

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Australian taxpayers paid $110,000 for federal ministers’ legal bills in last financial year

Documents reveal legal assistance was approved for former PM Scott Morrison in relation to a defamation claim made against him on 9 June 2020

Taxpayers have forked out $110,000 for federal ministers’ legal bills in the last financial year, including $4,000 to defend Scott Morrison against a 2020 defamation claim.

Documents tabled in parliament on Tuesday reveal taxpayers are on the hook for a pipeline of potential new cases, including former superannuation minister Jane Hume’s legal bills in a defamation stoush with Simon Holmes à Court.

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