Optus fined $1.5m for ‘alarming’ safety breach
Optus has been slapped with a $1.5m fine by the communications watchdog after the telco was found to have breached public safety rules.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found Optus did not upload the details of 200,000 mobile customers to a database used by emergency services between January 2021 and September 2023.
The Integrated Public Number Database is used to provide information to police, fire or ambulance services during triple zero calls, as well as being used to issue emergency alerts in disasters such as bushfires.
Samantha Yorke from the authority said an investigation into Optus was launched after a compliance audit found data was not submitted. She said:
While we are not aware of anyone being directly harmed due to the non-compliance in this case, it’s alarming that Optus placed so many customers in this position for so long.
Optus cannot outsource its obligations, even if part of the process is being undertaken by a third party.
As well as the financial penalty, Optus will be required to carry out an independent review of its compliance with the database, which is court enforced, and adopt any of the recommendations put forward.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come in the next post.
Key events
The climate is also putting a strain on fish stocks.
“Some of these stocks are going to be in real trouble as a result of climate, as opposed to as a result of fishing,” Australian Fisheries Management Authority CEO Wez Norris said.
The conference was told “significant climate impacts” on Australia’s marine ecosystem is affecting many fisheries species.
“The whole thing is completely changing,” said Gretta Pecl from the University of Tasmania.
Seafood production and management all over the world will continue to be severely challenged by the extreme challenges we are seeing in the marine environment.”
Pecl said she and all the other climate and ocean scientists she knows are “flabergasted” by the recent increase in ocean temperatures.
A new global sea surface temperature of 21.17C was recorded this week according to Pecl.
The comments come as ABARES forecasts that the gross value of Australian fisheries and aquaculture production will grow by half a per cent in 2023-24.
– Australian Associated Press
Climate and regulation ‘weighing down’ seafood industry, producers say
Climate change and government barriers are some of the biggest challenges weighing down the seafood industry, a major agricultural conference has been told.
NSW mussel farmer Sam Gordon said climate change had been a “huge problem” for his Jervis Bay operation, with rain forcing him to close for almost half of 2022.
Trying to manage processing staff when you’re open one week, you’re shut the next week … and trying to explain that to the major retailers …is a real challenge.
Gordon told the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (Abares) conference in Canberra that climate change had put aquaculture into “uncharted territory”, and government barriers are also causing a major headache.
I’m really worried that the state governments and commonwealth government just don’t have the means to keep up with legislation.
The seafood farmer said that to operate his business he liaises with 13 different government departments, with his biggest challenge having to deal with conflicting regulations.
“We need to scale up and we’d like to go into offshore waters, the technology is there … the challenge for us is government regulation because we’re going into an area that’s unchartered,” Gordon said.
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority CEO, Wez Norris, who is tasked with making sure fish stocks are sustainable, described the jurisdictional arrangements governing fisheries as “ridiculously complex”.
There are eight fisheries management agencies (the states, commonwealth and Northern Territory) with “inflexible” arrangements over who manages what, Norris said.
– AAP
More to come in the next post.
Environmentalists welcome offshore wind farm zone decision
Friends of the Earth have welcomed the federal government’s declaration of the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone.
“It is a sign that an ecologically sustainable offshore wind industry is achievable,” the environmental justice organisation said in a statement.
The reduction of the total size of the exploration area reflects “the need to protect sensitive marine ecosystems,” the statement reads.
Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson, said:
Offshore wind will play a critical role in cutting polluting greenhouse gas emissions by powering millions of homes with clean, renewable energy and is a much better choice than coal and gas.
The next step, Friends of the Earth said in the statement, is for the federal government to commit to marine spatial planning in offshore wind zones “to provide a pathway for deeper engagement with local communities, particularly First Nations”.
Sarah Basford Canales
Dutton ‘very proud’ of one-hour appearance at Gina Rinehart’s 70th birthday
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has said he was “very proud” to be at the 70th birthday of his “dear friend” and mining billionaire Gina Rinehart last week.
Speaking in Perth this afternoon, Dutton confirmed he had flown to Perth to attend the party, describing Rinehart as a “dear friend, a great Australian and Australia’s most successful businesswoman”.
Reports emerged earlier this week the Liberal leader had flown across the country to attend the event for just an hour before returning to Melbourne to campaign on cost-of-living issues ahead of the Dunkley byelection.
Dutton confirmed on Wednesday he flew there at his own expense and didn’t pay for accommodation as he took the red-eye flight back to Melbourne, arriving at 4.30am.
Dutton added:
If people want to speak negatively about [Rinehart], then that’s an issue for them. I actually celebrate the fact that we have an incredibly successful businesswoman in our country. She’s a friend of mine, I was happy to go there at my own expense to her birthday, and I don’t resile from it at all.
Sentencing for former army lawyer David McBride postponed
Sarah Basford Canales
In breaking news, the sentencing of former army lawyer David McBride has been postponed at the last minute after the commonwealth attempted to introduce further evidence.
McBride’s sentencing date was due to happen next Tuesday but the ACT supreme court vacated that date on Wednesday morning after McBride’s defence requested further time to consider the evidence.
That evidence is in the form of an affidavit – much of it classified – from a senior military figure discussing the harm and “severity” of McBride’s actions after he passed on defence documents to journalists at the ABC.
The documents formed the basis of ABC’s investigative series exposing war crimes in Afghanistan, titled The Afghan Files.
McBride pleaded guilty to three charges last November, including stealing commonwealth information and handing it to the media.
McBride’s lawyer, Mark Davis, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday he was considering whether McBride’s guilty plea should be adjusted and whether the case should return to hearings.
Having come this far with McBride on a torturous journey, once again we’re back into the wilderness awaiting his fate … at the moment, we’re hoping to get it back on track as a sentence, but we don’t have endless funds like they have. We don’t have endless staff. And David doesn’t have endless energy for this.
Benita Kolovos
Reduced offshore wind zones still ‘five times more than what we need’, Victorian energy minister says
D’Ambrosio said the reduced zone would not affect Victoria’s ambitious renewable energy targets, adding that another zone in Gippsland has already been approved. She said:
If we consider the size of the zone that’s been declared off Gippsland, if it’s all full, it can give us about 10 gigawatts of offshore renewable energy … we’re going to an option in 2032 which is to deliver at least two gigawatt. So 10 gigawatts already [in] just Gippsland itself is more than enough. It’s five times more than what we actually need to have a successful auction.
She said Bowen’s declaration today will add further acreage that can accommodate 3GW:
When you take those together, you can see Gippsland the wind gives us five times more area for projects to be built to deliver those gigawatts. So that’s not the issue for us in Victoria … The issue here is what is next in terms of the commonwealth government’s commitment … We need a plan from them.
D’Ambrosio said the federal government needed to introduce a national wind target:
They’ve got a national target for hydrogen. They’ve got a national target for a range of other renewable energy technologies. They don’t have one for offshore wind. So there’s a massive gap here.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian energy minister unconcerned by offshore wind zone reduction
Earlier today, the Victorian energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, responded to her federal counterpart Chris Bowen’s decision to significantly reduce the size of Australia’s third offshore wind zone, after lobbying from environmental groups.
Under the plan the new zone, to be located about 15–20km off Victoria’s coast, would span 1,030 sq km rather than the initially planned more than 5,000 sq km.
D’Ambrosio said she’s not concerned about the size of the new zone:
That’s five times more than what we need for our first auction, which is fantastic.
She said expressions of interest from proposed projects will open later this year before an auction in 2025:
By 2026, towards the end of that year, we will be in a position to have awarded the first contracts for our first target for 2032. It’s really exciting. We’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting in Victoria. And the real question here, of course, is that what happens next from the commonwealth government? I mean, they’ve done the paperwork for declaring the zones. They’re doing feasibility licenses, that’s all well and good, but their job does not end and should not end once they finish the paperwork for what is an essential new industry, not just for Victoria, but for the rest of the country.
Up to $10m additional fines possible if Optus does not meet review requirements
Optus could be hit with a further fine of up to $10m if it does not meet requirements from the review.
“All telcos need to have systems in place that ensure they are meeting their obligations, including having robust oversight and assurance processes for third-party suppliers,” Yorke said.
When emergency services are hindered, there can be very serious consequences for the safety of Australians.
An Optus spokesperson said it accepted that proper audits were not in place to ensure the database requirements were being met.
“We apologise for this and accept that we have not met community expectations,” the spokesperson said.
Optus has now introduced those audits and checks-over its supplier’s performance to ensure this issue is not repeated. Optus accepts the ACMA’s findings and has agreed to an enforceable undertaking.
The communications watchdog has hit five other telcos with a combined $2m in fines for similar database responsibility breaches over the past 18 months.
– AAP
Optus fined $1.5m for ‘alarming’ safety breach
Optus has been slapped with a $1.5m fine by the communications watchdog after the telco was found to have breached public safety rules.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found Optus did not upload the details of 200,000 mobile customers to a database used by emergency services between January 2021 and September 2023.
The Integrated Public Number Database is used to provide information to police, fire or ambulance services during triple zero calls, as well as being used to issue emergency alerts in disasters such as bushfires.
Samantha Yorke from the authority said an investigation into Optus was launched after a compliance audit found data was not submitted. She said:
While we are not aware of anyone being directly harmed due to the non-compliance in this case, it’s alarming that Optus placed so many customers in this position for so long.
Optus cannot outsource its obligations, even if part of the process is being undertaken by a third party.
As well as the financial penalty, Optus will be required to carry out an independent review of its compliance with the database, which is court enforced, and adopt any of the recommendations put forward.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come in the next post.
Qantas fined $250,000 for standing down worker who raised Covid concerns
Qantas has been hit with a $250,000 fine after it was found guilty of breaching workplace health and safety laws in standing down a worker for raising Covid-19 concerns, AAP reports.
The airline agreed in late February to pay $21,000 to Theo Seremetidis, a trained health and safety representative who directed others not to clean planes arriving from China early in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seremetidis was stood down by Qantas subsidiary Qantas Ground Services (QGS) in February 2020, hours after he told others to cease cleaning and servicing planes over concerns staff could be at risk of contracting the virus.
Judge David Russell handed down the $250,000 penalty to Qantas in the NSW district court on Wednesday. He said:
The conduct against Mr Seremetidis was quite shameful.
Even when he was stood down and under investigation, QGS attempted to manufacture additional reasons for its actions.
Russell said Qantas acted to advance its own commercial interest in taking the action:
There was a gross power imbalance between senior managers at QGS and Mr Seremetidis, a part-time employee on a modest wage.
The airline faced a maximum penalty of $500,000. It is the first instance of a major airline facing criminal prosecution for violations of workplace safety regulations.
Man arrested over alleged hit-and-run in Sydney’s west
New South Wales police have arrested a man over the alleged hit-and-run in Mount Prichard that we reported on earlier.
In a statement, police said officers seized for forensic examination a Lexus sedan at a home near the suburban Sydney street where a man was found early in the morning.
Police arrested a 55-year-old man at the house where the Lexus was seized. He has been taken to Fairfield police station and is assisting police with their inquiries.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland police vaccine mandate was issued in good faith, premier says
The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, says the state government issued its unlawful police vaccine mandate in good faith, in response to a question in question time.
The Katter MP Shane Knuth has demanded the state government reappoint workers sacked under the state government’s “unlawful” police vaccine mandate.
The supreme court last week struck down vaccine mandates over the police and ambulance departments. It found the police commissioner had failed to consider the Human Rights Act when making her decision in 2021.
“Will the premier immediately instruct all government departments withdraw all disciplinary action directly related to the mandate and reinstate all affected workers back to their full employment?” Knuth, asked in question time.
Miles told parliament the government is taking crown law advice on the decision before taking further action.
“Of course, all of our agencies will comply with decisions of the court,” he said.
We took the decisions that we took at the time and in the interests of Queenslanders, in the interests of preserving the life of Queenslanders.
A couple years down the track, it might be a bit easy in hindsight to pore over that decision-making, but I can assure the member for Hill, and everyone in this house, all of those decisions were made based on the advice that we had available to us, the advice that those steps would keep Queenslanders safe, and we stand by those decisions.
The supreme court ruled the police mandate was “unlawful” and the paramedic one of no effect. The decision could be appealed to the supreme court of appeal.
Peter Hannam
Government and private spending boosted growth as household savings picked up
That the economy kept growing in 2023 owed a lot to government spending picking up some of the slack. Spending rose 0.6% in the December quarter, although well down on the 1.5% expansion in the September quarter, the ABS said.
Much of that spending was on benefits to households, but outlays to hold the voice referendum also sprayed a bit of money into the far reaches of the nation.
Extra benefits meant household spending not only grew (albeit 0.1%) but it helped the income to savings rate turn positive to 3.2% for the first time after two years of declines. Among other things, that means there’s a bit more left in the kitty for many if the rainy days return.
Incomes are also rising at about the pace of inflation and will probably be outpacing price increases during the current quarter.
Add in the prospect of inflation falling further, tax cuts by July and possibly RBA rate cuts not too long after that, it’s not hard to see things turning around for many. (China growth prospects being one possible headwind.)
Anyway, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is saying the “quite weak” growth was still welcome in the circumstances. He compared Australia’s 1.5% GDP growth in 2023 with other nations.
(According to the Economist, the US economy grew 3.1% last year, while Japan eked out 1% growth and the UK shrank 0.2%. The Euro area grew 0.1% and Canada 0.5%.)
‘Even weak growth is welcome growth,’ treasurer says
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking at a press conference on the national account numbers announced a short while ago.
He says the numbers show that Australia’s growth is “subdued but relatively steady”:
In the face of high interest rates, high moderating inflation and ongoing global economic uncertainty, the Australian economy grew by 0.2% in the December quarter to be 1.5% higher through the year, according to the ABS. Growth slowed over the year but it held up in the quarter.
The economy grew a little but not a lot. Growth in our economy was quite weak as we have expected. Even weak growth is welcome growth, in the circumstances. Slow growth is still significant growth, given challenging global conditions combined with the impact of higher interest rates.
