Key events
Finance minister says OpenAI breach herald of a ‘new world’
Katy Gallagher, the federal minister for government services, is speaking this morning about the OpenAI breach of Medicare, saying we are essentially “in a new world” with the brisk advancement of technology.
She told Radio National breakfast this morning:
I think this incident really adds weight to the arguments that the PM that has been putting forward about needing to legislate, to provide some protections, some guardrails, and also, you know, have an escalation pathway.
I mean, the idea that something happened in June 18th and we weren’t aware of it until the 2nd week of September is just not acceptable.
Gallagher said mandatory reporting requirements should be imposed “at a minimum”. She said there should be consequences while acknowledging that OpenAI had been helping in the investigation after the incident.
I think we have to have a look at this incident and deal with it on its merits, but the broader question of how we deal with these in the future.
Interest rate hike looms as inflation stubbornly high
Rising unemployment, stubbornly high inflation and a looming interest rate hike are piling misery onto Australian consumers, but Labor insists better days are on the horizon, Australian Associated Press reports.
The pinch of optimism comes as mortgage holders brace for the Reserve Bank of Australia to lift the official interest rate to a near-15-year high of 4.6% on Tuesday, an outcome money markets are treating as largely a foregone conclusion.
Central bankers in the US, Japan and Europe have all pushed interest rates up since the RBA’s board met in August, all crediting their decisions to rising oil and fuel prices resulting from the increasingly intractable US-Iran war.
On Sunday the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said the government knew households were “doing it tough” and was working to put downward pressure on inflation.
Average fuel prices in Australia’s five largest cities had risen to $2.37 per litre for petrol and $2.69 for diesel as of Wednesday, but Labor has rejected calls for it to reinstate a previous cut to fuel taxes to help ease the burden on road-users.
Inflation, which came in hotter than expected in August, could rise from 3.5 to 4% when the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes its latest figures on Wednesday.
Read more here:
Chalmers and Gallagher to present final budget outcome
Tom McIlroy
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, will present the final budget outcome on Monday, the updated accounting measure for the 2025-26 financial year.
Despite challenges facing the government, Chalmers is expected to say the figures show the budget deficit is smaller than originally forecast.
He will argue the improvements are worth billions of dollars to the budget.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog.
Nick Visser will join us shortly. We have budget news, interest rate hikes on the horizon and some expert views on autonomous AI and hacks.
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