What we learned today, Tuesday 8 November
And that’s where we’re going to wrap things up for the day. Here are some of the highlights:
The cybercriminals allegedly behind the Medibank data breach have threatened to start releasing some of the data since Medibank has refused to pay the ransom.
The threats came as a survey from the Australian National University suggests more than six million Australians have fallen victim to a data breach in the last year.
The Australian federal police commissioner said women and children recently repatriated from Syria will continue to be assessed by the AFP and counter-terrorism teams.
It was revealed in Senate estimates that the Morrison government’s cancellation of the French submarine contract cost $591m.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told the Labor caucus that he is “committed” to reforming the administrative appeals tribunal.
A senior staff member of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority is alleged to have urinated on staff members at a function in Armidale in late 2021, and has now resigned.
The Labor senator Glenn Sterle referred to Bridget McKenzie as a “naughty little girl” during a Senate estimates fracas this morning, and later apologised.
The royal commission into robodebt heard that a Department of Human Services official nominated a public servant for a 2017 Australia Day award to mark his role designing the botched scheme.
The inquiry into alleged war crimes conducted by Australian special forces has expanded beyond the Brereton report, investigators confirmed.
And the former Greens leader Bob Brown was arrested in north-eastern Tasmania while protesting against logging in forests that environmentalists say are breeding habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot.
Look after yourselves folks, and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus says AAT has a ‘completely unacceptable’ bullying record
The administrative appeals tribunal has a “completely unacceptable” record of bullying complaints on top of the Coalition’s “miserable record” of stacking the body, the attorney general has said.
As we reported earlier, Mark Dreyfus made the comments in question time on Tuesday, seizing on the latest controversy involving the tribunal to bolster Labor’s case to reform or replace it due to partisan appointments made by the Coalition.
In opposition, Dreyfus frequently criticised the Coalition’s practice of appointing former staffers and politicians from its ranks to the powerful tribunal, which reviews the merits of government decisions in areas including welfare, immigration and the national disability insurance scheme.
The government is actively considering abolishing the AAT and replacing it with a new merits review tribunal. Dreyfus did not rule out that option in June when it was proposed by a Labor-chaired Senate committee. A decision on the AAT’s future is expected as early as December.
Read the full story here:
Updated
