Federal politics live: Senior Labor members defend Jim Chalmers following leaks

The PM is asked if OpenAI actually broke any laws when it came to the Medicare portal breach.

“The point is law needs to get ahead of, and in some cases, make sure that it catches up with what is a very fast–changing world,” Anthony Albanese said.

He said on releasing the report, the government would make sure its national security interests were protected in that.

“We don’t want to assist people or entities or governments that would seek to do us harm. So we’ll have a sensible approach to that,” he said.

A rapid review into the OpenAI incident that affected Australian government systems hasn’t been released, even though the government has accepted all recommendations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been asked what the report found and whether the AI company breached any laws.

The PM says the government will release the report. He says no personal information was accessed in the incident.

“The implications of this, in fact, were minor in terms of direct implications. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a serious issue and that in other areas there might be more serious implications,” Albanese says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirms that no-one’s personal details were obtained in the OpenAI Medicare portal breach, according to the rapid review.

“You will get to see the report,” Albanese says to reporters, saying it will be made public.

“The clear indication is that no information was got, that involves people’s personal details.”

He is asked what constraints the new framework will put around Chinese AI companies and if they will be able to operate in Australia.

“We’ll deal with things appropriately,” he said, including national security issues.

Onto questions now, and the PM has been asked about concerns raised by Australian artist Jimmy Barnes on artificial intelligence.

Barnes has raised concerns about AI companies seeking to mine and scrape artists’ work to train their models.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Barnes needs to be “clearer” on his views on matters like these and “shouldn’t beat around the bush”

“What he should do is have look at the speech that I gave in July where I made it very clear,” Albanese says.

“You have here in this prime minister and this arts minister, two people who not only get great pleasure from listening to Australian music but believe it’s absolutely critical that Australian stories get told and one of the way they get told is through the unique brilliance of Australian music.”

Albanese is referring to a speech he gave earlier this year, setting out a framework for artificial intelligence development and data centres.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says Australia needs to ensure it gets the principles of artificial intelligence right.

Burke says artificial intelligence can find vulnerabilities in AI systems within 10 hours. He says Australia’s laws and systems need to be able to keep pace.

“The mandatory reporting when artificial intelligence goes rogue gives us a chance to be able to make sure that when this happens, the reporting occurs and occurs immediately,” Albanese says.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says among the 18 recommendations from the rapid review, the need to engage with frontier AI companies is at the core.

“This is not a technology we can run away from,” he said.

“There needs to be greater risk management of the AI capabilities.”

He said increased co-ordination is needed across agencies spanning departments of Defence, Industry and Home Affairs, including the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre, as well as the AI Safety Institute.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says there will be six clear recommendations or mandated actions artificial intelligence companies will be required to take. They include:

1. Maintain security controls across all stages of development and deployment
2. Identify and manage serious risks associated with their models 
3. Provide mandatory notification of incidents to the Australian government rapidly
4. Allow independent evaluation of their models 
5. Maintain and publish safety and security frameworks to ensure good governance, risk management and transparency, and 
6. Respond to update standards and rules as technologies changes

The prime minister says these protections are aligned with the recommendations from the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has refused to weigh in on the leaks to the media about Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Yesterday, Environment Minister Murray Watt said he would like leaks coming from Labor MPs to stop.

This morning, Assistant Ministers Andrew Charlton and Daniel Mulino threw their support around the treasurer.

“That’s a matter for Labor. But this is the point. We’ve got a government in chaos. We’ve got a treasurer in hiding, and we have a prime minister fleeing the country again. Do your job,” Taylor says.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has stepped up for a press conference in Melbourne with the Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson.

The opposition leader has been asked about the news Qantas will cut 850 corporate jobs from mid-2027.

The Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson has said the airline has struck an outsourcing deal with Accenture.

Taylor has laid the blame on the federal government, saying Labor is in “chaos” and the treasurer is in hiding.

“What we’ve got is a government that’s in chaos, a treasurer who’s in hiding and a prime minister who’s fleeing the country again and so we need a government that’s on the job,” Taylor says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be holding a press conference in 10 minutes here at Parliament House in Canberra.

The prime minister will be joined by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

We’ll bring you the press conference right here as soon as it happens!

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson says the government needs to address holes in the Digital Duty of Care legislation, which is before a Senate inquiry for a second day today.

Henderson says the Coalition has concerns that the laws could allow the government “to shut down lawful speech”, but Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has dismissed censorship concerns as “baseless” and the “talking points of big tech”.

Henderson said the bill is a “dog’s breakfast” and was a “shocking failure” by Communications Minister Anika Wells.

Henderson cited concerns from Google that it may have to prevent users under 18 from accessing Gmail, as well as the eSafety Commission’s concerns.

The eSafety Commission, in its submission to the inquiry, made some recommendations about how to strengthen the legislation, including clear definitions for new key terms and harms.

It noted that once the digital duty of care comes into effect, the Online Safety Codes and Standards will be repealed, and that the new legislation “does not provide any mechanism to set specific obligations”.

The commission said the bill could be amended “to allow for minimum obligations to be prescribed under a disallowable legislative instrument”, adding that legislative instruments are more flexible and future-proof compared to embedding obligations in the law.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson says she’s not surprised by leaks against Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

The Labor treasurer is under pressure to find savings in the budget as inflation rises and interest rate hikes are taking their toll on mortgage-borrowers.

Senior members of the government have been out defending the treasurer today, saying his job is safe.

Speaking to reporters in the press gallery, Henderson says Chalmers is “failing Australians” and condemns the budget, adding that many people are feeling economic pain.

“Jim Chalmers is toxic within his own party,” Henderson says.

“It is no wonder that Labor’s backbench is briefing out against Jim Chalmers.”

Nicolette Boele, the Independent MP for Bradfield, is the only non-government politician at COP31.

She says it’s not unusual for lots of fossil fuel lobbyists to be present.

“The World Health Organization, when they meet to talk about tobacco, they don’t usually have people from the tobacco industry turning up,” she told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

The independent MP said it puts into question the efficacy and integrity of negotiations.

When asked about the Coalition’s argument that the government needs to cut back on climate change mitigation measures to rein in spending and lower inflation, Boele says she’s not buying that argument.

She says fossil fuels have been a “major part” of the “savage cost of living crisis, made even worse by the war in Iran”.

“So I would say to the Coalition: when you’ve got a problem created by fossil fuels about dependency on international markets, we need to double down on our energy sovereignty,” she says.

“And one of the best ways to do that is to electrify our economy, to make sure that we have homegrown, Aussie, clean energy here with solar and wind.”

Independent MP Nicolette Boele, who worked in clean energy and climate finance for decades before entering politics, is in Türkiye for COP31.

She tells ABC Radio National Breakfast Australia is in the spotlight and needs to be ambitious to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees or lower.

“That’s a really important target. Our Pacific family has asked for it and we know we’ve overshot it. We’ve got to work harder on that,” she said.

Boele says Australia needs to have some “really tricky conversations”.

“We have a really interesting dilemma. We are on path to electrify and switch our energy to renewables, but we’re also one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels in the world,” she says.

The PM will fly to the UN’s climate change summit in Türkiye today, where Australia’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen is serving as president for negotiations.

Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan has urged the government to push back against so-called “green tariffs” at COP31 in Türkiye.

The prime minister is travelling to Türkiye today to attend the conference, where leaders are expected to make a pledge to have 35 per cent of the world powered by electricity by 2035.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is used by the European Union to address carbon leakage by aligning the carbon costs of foreign producers with those of EU producers.

Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Tehan says Labor has to counter “harebrained ideas” that would lock Australia into trade agreements embedded with CBAM.

“What we’re deeply concerned about, and I think we’ll see approaches in Türkiye at this climate change conference for this to be embedded, and this is something the Australian government should fight,” Tehan says.

“This is a step back for the globe. It’s not the right approach that countries should take … This will be a backward step and my hope is we will see our government fight this tooth and nail.”

Listen back to the full interview in the link below.

The Greens are holding firm on their calls to include a right for people to sue social media companies in Labor’s Digital Duty of Care bill.

The bill, if passed, will require big tech companies to prevent and mitigate harm on their platforms for users younger than 18.

Labor’s bill will also allow all social media users to opt out of addictive algorithms.

The Coalition has opposed the bill in its current form, which means Labor needs the Greens to pass the bill through the upper house.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says her party wants citizens to have the right to sue social media companies.

“The government legislation goes some way, but not all the way. We want to make sure Australians have the right to take action against social media companies, if they are indeed harmed using them online,” Hanson-Young says.

“American citizens can do that. We’ve seen changes in the United States because American citizens have been able to take these companies to court. They should be able to do the same thing here in Australia”

Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton says Labor is right behind Jim Chalmers after the environment minister urged colleagues to stop leaking against the treasurer.

Yesterday, Murray Watt said he would like the leaking against the treasurer to stop and emphasised the importance of party unity.

Speaking to Channel Seven this morning, Charlton says Chalmers is doing a good job given the challenges facing the Australian economy.

“Jim Chalmers is really facing into those challenges, whether it be getting inflation down by delivering two budget surpluses or helping young Australians to buy their first home,” Charlton says.

Asked who is leaking against the treasurer, Charlton initially deflected but says he thinks the caucus supports the treasurer.

“I think the caucus supports Jim Chalmers because they know he’s doing a good job in in a difficult time. I’m not going to speculate on leaks that people aren’t putting their name to.”

Asked if he would take the treasurer’s job if it were up for grabs, Charlton says he’s focused on his own job:

“I’m very focused on my job. I’m working on artificial intelligence.”

The assistant treasurer says Jim Chalmers is safe in his job after a cabinet minister urged his colleagues to stop leaking against the treasurer.

Yesterday, Environment Minister Murray Watt warned his ministerial and backbench colleagues to stop leaking.

Asked if Chalmers is safe in his role as treasurer, Mulino says he is “absolutely” safe.

“The treasurer is working on one-in-25-year tax reform with the PM and with, obviously, the cabinet and the whole caucus,” Mulino says.

“The treasurer is leading a very ambitious program. The tax reforms are going to be very important for productivity growth, but also for fairness.”

Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! It’s great to have you join us here early this Tuesday morning.

I’m Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today’s federal politics news.

The prime minister is about to embark on a trip to COP31 in Türkiye, the ASEAN summit in Manila, Philippines and APEC in Shenzhen, China.

Let’s get right into the day and see what we get!

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