Australia news live: Hume sceptical legal action should follow OpenAI breach; flight cancellation heartbreak for AFL fans | Australian politics
‘Finger-wagging’ over OpenAI hack not helpful: Jane Hume
Tom McIlroy
The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume, has expressed scepticism revelations an OpenAI agent accessed Australian government data without authorisation should have legal consequences for the company.
The hack was revealed last week, despite taking place in June. Government ministers have raised the prospect of possible referrals to the Australian federal police, but gaps in Australian law could make establishing criminal liability difficult.
Hume told ABC TV on Sunday that AI is inevitably going to be a part of Australia’s future and it was important the country was part of the conversation.
But certainly the way to go about that is not to threaten criminal action against US counterparts and those trusted partners that we’re relying on now to make sure that we can bring those frontier models, that we can do frontier model training here in Australia.
I don’t necessarily think that finger-wagging at our trusted partners, or trying to gazump Donald Trump, is the way to go about that.
Key events
New South Wales’ ‘eyes in the sky’ spotting a dozen sharks every day
Drones patrols have picked up an average of 20 sharks a day at patrolled beaches over winter as aerial surveillance is ramped up for the school holidays, AAP reports.
Drone operators across NSW detected 1,225 sharks from 1 July to 31 August, fresh data has revealed.
The number of sharks spotted prompted 360 shark safety measures to be taken including evacuations from the water, sounding alarms to alert swimmers and surfers and deploying inflatable boats and jet skis.
The statewide drone operations conducted by Surf Life Saving NSW recorded 49,000 flights which logged 16,150 flight hours and covered 343,000km.
The NSW government released the figures on Sunday as it rolled out “the world’s largest and most advanced aerial shark surveillance program” in time for the state’s school holidays.
Tom McIlroy
‘Competing priorities’ on copyright protections: Hume
Jane Hume has left open the possibility of supporting changes to Australia’s copyright laws to attract more investment by AI companies, ahead of significant legislation expected in the next six months.
On ABC TV, Hume was asked about the differing of views Coalition members on the need to maintain strong protections for Australian writers, musicians, film-makers, photographers and journalists – something the federal government is now considering.
Labor’s AI bill is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year.
“The copyright laws are really important,” Hume said. “Making sure that we protect the work of authors, artists and journalists, that is fundamentally important.”
Asked about the position of the Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash that any move to water down copyright protections would be wrong, Hume was less definitive and cited the role of a new parliamentary committee on AI.
There are competing arguments here. If we want to make sure that any sovereign AI models are culturally relevant and appropriate, we want to make sure that that work is reflected.
There’s a big difference between copying and using illegally other people’s work and learning from it.
We want to work with the government on this to get it right, so that we protect our journalists, protect our authors, protect our artists, but at the same time don’t miss out on the really important access to those frontier AI models that we are going to need, not only to make sure that we are appropriately defended, but also to boost productivity and increase our economic growth into the future.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland records five-year high number of deaths in child protection system
Queensland has recorded a five-year high of 92 deaths of children in the child protection system, according to new data.
The Queensland Family and Child Commission reported 452 deaths of children in its annual report, on Friday.
Of that number, 102 were Indigenous children, and 94 died of “external causes”, including 28 who died of suicide and 13 died of a fatal accident or neglect. 92 had engaged with the state’s child safety system in the year before they died, 7 in care and 43 with open investigations or “intake events”.
It is the highest number of deaths overall and the highest number in the child safety system in 5 years, up from 427 overall deaths and 57 in protection.
The commission, which also administrates the state’s child death review board, was created to independently oversee the child safety system as a result of a inquiry called by premier Campbell Newman.
The state government recently tabled legislation to give the minister the power to sack its commissioner for any reason or none, but insists the role would remain independent.
Tom McIlroy
‘Not entirely sure who they’re going to put in cuffs’, Hume says
Asked if possible legal action should be off the table, Hume said the liability was unclear:
“I’m not entirely sure who they’re going to put in cuffs,” she said.
The real alarm bell that was set off this week is the fact that the only reason we knew about this breach of the Medicare archive or data system is because OpenAI told us there was a breach.
If they hadn’t told us that there was a breach, would we have known about it at all? That demonstrates that our cyber defences, particularly for Services Australia, were woefully inadequate.
‘Finger-wagging’ over OpenAI hack not helpful: Jane Hume
Tom McIlroy
The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume, has expressed scepticism revelations an OpenAI agent accessed Australian government data without authorisation should have legal consequences for the company.
The hack was revealed last week, despite taking place in June. Government ministers have raised the prospect of possible referrals to the Australian federal police, but gaps in Australian law could make establishing criminal liability difficult.
Hume told ABC TV on Sunday that AI is inevitably going to be a part of Australia’s future and it was important the country was part of the conversation.
But certainly the way to go about that is not to threaten criminal action against US counterparts and those trusted partners that we’re relying on now to make sure that we can bring those frontier models, that we can do frontier model training here in Australia.
I don’t necessarily think that finger-wagging at our trusted partners, or trying to gazump Donald Trump, is the way to go about that.
Partner of NSW police officer who died in crash says he’s lost the love of his life
Daniel Vasquez, the partner of NSW police officer Mia Lay, who died in a car crash while on duty, issued a statement on behalf of her family yesterday, saying he had lost the “love of my life”.
Vasquez said:
Mia loved what she did in the police. She was happy in the police, she was good at her job, and how loved she was by everyone in the community. She was the happiest girl I’ve met …
I’d ask for everyone to remember how stunning and beautiful she was. She was a kind hearted person, gave so much love to everyone that she cared about …
I’ve just lost the love of my life. She will be missed by everyone. And I ask that she is remembered.
Tom McIlroy
Marles defends Albanese’s global leadership award
Richard Marles has defended the prime minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to accept an award for global leadership in UN last week, part of a black tie event in Manhattan hosted by the Atlantic Council.
The opposition criticised Albanese for being in New York during difficult economic times for Australian households.
The prime minister accepted an award about the way in which we are managing our place in the world, and specifically our place in the region. In terms of the alliances that we’ve struck with countries around Australia, such as Papua New Guinea and Fiji, the way in which we are pursuing the AUKUS arrangements, which are building Australian capability in what is a very challenging world.
I think the recognition of the prime minister is deserved in respect of him. But it’s also a recognition of what his government has been doing to make sure that we are keeping Australians safe in a very challenging global environment, and that’s what we are seeking to do here.
Tom McIlroy
Trump White House wants Iran war to end: Marles
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is on News 24 this morning and has been asked about the ongoing economic and geopolitical damage being caused by Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
Marles says it clear that the White House wants the war to end.
Clearly, the United States wants to see an end to the conflict. That’s to state the obvious, but they are seeking to to manage that through
What is clear is that the global fuel supply chain is disrupted, and that is having an impact on the global economy … and that’s what we are seeking to manage in terms of the way we manage the economy and the budget at home.
Marles says OpenAI CEO didn’t tell him about hack in September meeting
Tom McIlroy
Richard Marles says revelations last week that an OpenAI agent hacked into Australian government websites is very serious, despite the nature of the information accessed being less sensitive.
Marles met with OpenAI boss Sam Altman earlier this month but the company did not disclose that it knew the agent had breached Australian government systems.
He declined to speculate about whether Altman knew about the breach or not when they met.
“The fact that we’ve got an artificial intelligence agent gaining unauthorised access to an Australian government website, that of itself is very serious,” Marles told News 24. “There’s no hiding that.
This is the first time this has happened in the context of Australia, and so we’re not shying away from that. In fact, the information that it obtained, was minor in its nature, in as much as that information we’ve now made public anyway, it wasn’t anyone’s personal data.
But in a sense, the seriousness doesn’t lie in the information that was obtained. It was the fact that we’ve got an unintended action of an AI agent gaining unauthorised access into an Australian government website.
Flight cancellations cause heartache for interstate footy fans
Caitlin Cassidy
Interstate footy fans grappled with flight delays and cancellations on Saturday as they raced to reach Melbourne in time for the AFL Grand Final.
Melbourne airport said some flights had been cancelled due to poor weather causing low visibility, with rain forecast for much of the morning and early afternoon.
About 100,000 fans packed into the MCG on Saturday for an all-interstate final between the Fremantle Dockers and the Brisbane Lions starting at 2.30pm.
A Qantas flight from Perth scheduled to land at 10.30am was cancelled and a further two were delayed, including another Qantas flight scheduled to arrive before the bounce at 1.40pm which was delayed by around an hour.
Two Brisbane flights were cancelled and nine were delayed by up to two hours, meaning some fans landed after the 2.30pm starting time.
Among those racing to make the game was journalist and TV host Brooke Boney, who was scheduled to land at 11.35am, which was pushed back by an hour. She made it to the ground just in time for Kylie Minogue’s pre-match entertainment.
Albanese says announcement of Medicare breach ‘purely in national interest’
Anthony Albanese says he was not aware of other cases of AI agents wrongfully accessing classified information before he revealed OpenAI’s unauthorised infiltration of the Medicare Statistics Reporting portal in New York on Thursday, Australian Associated Press reports.
“At the time we made our announcement … we weren’t aware of other occurrences,” the prime minister told reporters at Sydney airport on Saturday.
“We were acting purely in our national interest.”
The PM landed back in Australia on Saturday after a week in the US where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the international need to rein in AI.
He said news that autonomous agents allegedly infiltrated American university and commerce department sites, as well as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, further proved that need.
“We now know it wasn’t just the issue of the Australian sites that have been subject to AI agents accessing information without authorisation,” Albanese said.
What this does is confirm that approach of making sure that it needs to be an appropriate national response, as well as an international response to make sure that humans are in charge of this new and emerging technology.
Albanese said it was up to OpenAI to state why multiple breaches occurred.
Good morning
Welcome to our Sunday live blog. Flight delays and cancellations caused frustration and heartache for some footy fans racing to make it to Saturday’s AFL grand final before the first bounce. And the PM says the timing of his announcement of OpenAI’s Medicare hack was made “purely in the national interest”. More on both those stories shortly.
Also, the Liberal deputy leader, Jane Hume, will be speaking on the ABC’s Insiders this morning. More on that coming up.
