Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government responding to the Optus data breach?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question. The Optus data breach is of great concern, and I acknowledge the stress and worry that this has caused millions of Australians. When customers hand over their data to companies in Australia, they expect that it will be kept safe, and this kind of data breach should be an absolute wake up call to corporate Australia.

The government has been working with Optus around the clock to obtain the crucial information and evidence needed to conduct a complex criminal investigation led by the AFP, in cooperation with the FBI. I spoke to the CEO of Optus on Saturday, having had a brief from the head of the Australian Signals Directorate on Friday night, and I know that Minister O'Neil and other ministers have been working around the clock on this issue. As the government continues to actively monitor risks for those customers impacted by the breach, our message to Australians is to be vigilant, to not divulge data to unknown entities and to take advantage of the credit monitoring services.

We know that this breach should never have happened, and the government expects Optus to do everything within its means to support affected customers. Clearly, we need better national laws, after a decade of inaction, to manage the immense amounts of data collected by companies about Australians and clear consequences for when they do not manage it well. We're committed to protecting Australians' personal information and to strengthening privacy laws through the Privacy Act review.

Those opposite want taxpayers to pay for a problem caused by Optus and their own failures on cybersecurity and privacy regulation. I was surprised to read a media release from their shadow minister saying Labor must provide new passports for Optus victims. What that means is that taxpayers should provide for that. Well, that's not our approach. We believe that Optus should pay, not taxpayers.

Senator Penny Wong, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has written to the CEO of Optus, Ms Bayer Rosmarin, today, asking for that. I table the letter from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to Optus. That is a big difference between us and those opposite, who are somehow attempting to play politics and say that taxpayers should fund this, after they sat on a failure to legislate appropriately for nine long years.

We are dealing this issue. We know that it does need to be dealt with. We know that this has been an absolute priority for Australians. On that note, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.