Live updates: AI breach of Medicare and Weinstein sentencing

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Thursday, September 24. Here’s what you need to know today.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston has called for a wide audit of government systems after an Open AI agent breached Medicare data, and the government was not informed until months afterwards.

“The fact that this could happen is serious enough, but the fact that we had to wait for OpenAI to actually advise the government that it had even happened is even more concerning,” Ruston told ABC radio this morning.

“The first thing I’ll be asking this morning is a briefing from the Department in relation to my portfolio area, which is health, and obviously the one that’s been impacted by this breach,” the Liberal senator said.

“But I think it goes wider than that. If we can have a breach of this nature into data in Medicare, what’s to say there can’t be breaches in other areas? So that’s why I think it’s incredibly important the government does an immediate audit to understand where its vulnerabilities are, so that Australians can have confidence that the systems that the government has in place are protecting their information and protecting our nation.”

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government was investigating any potential breach of the law by Open AI as well as penalties that might correspond. He reiterated that the data accessed was of “lower” sensitivity and therefore had less security protection.

The government has yet to determine whether OpenAI has broken the law or is liable to suffer a penalty for the breach of a Medicare website in June in which public and non-public files were accessed, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles has said.

Asked about penalties and breaches of the law on ABC radio this morning, Marles said: “That’s a good question, and again, that’s one that we are working through here, and so we will look at what ... is the legal situation in respect of this, and what it means to have gained an unauthorised access, albeit in an unintended way. So that is one of the questions that we’re continuing to investigate through the task force.”

Marles said the investigation would look at why the government had to be informed by OpenAI of the breach, rather than Australian security agencies. The minister reiterated that information accessed was on the “lower end of sensitivity”.

“We’re not talking about the very highly sensitive information that we have in respect of national security, and obviously, in relation to that, we have, you know, enormous security measures which are in place around them,” Marles said.

“This is a portal which would have had relatively low levels of security, which befitted the fact that the information that it contained was not particularly sensitive. So people should be clear about that.”

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles refused to comment on Donald Trump’s approach to AI, but said Australia held firm in its approach to AI regulation despite pressure from the US to allow the technology to run rampant.

During an address at the United Nations General Assembly this week, Trump said he wanted artificial intelligence to be rebranded “super intelligence”. He has rejected international attempts to regulate AI.

“The last thing I’m going to do is speculate on how Donald Trump makes his decisions. That’s obviously a matter for him,” Marles told Nine’s Today.

“But let’s be really clear about where Australia stands … Australia absolutely believes that guardrails need to be put in place, that the safety measures around the development of AI need to be well in advance of the capability that is being developed itself, and that extreme care needs to be taken in respect of developing artificial intelligence.”

Earlier, Greens senator Hanson-Young called for a moratorium on AI development in Australia and claimed Australians were “rightly worried” about artificial intelligence outpacing regulation.

Marles has just revealed that OpenAI was aware of the breach back in August, but government ministers were only told about it at the end of last week.

“OpenAI themselves found out about it in August as they were going through and looking at all that its model had done, that the agents had done,” he told News24.

“Services Australia were informed about this around two weeks ago. Government ministers were informed about this at the end of last week and over the weekend. That’s when I became aware of it.”

Pressed on why it had taken so long for OpenAI to notify the government of the breach, Marles said: “The question you raise of why it took so long for the Australian government to be notified is a reasonable one, and that’s a point that we’ve made to OpenAI.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says the OpenAI breach has had “no impact” on personal data as he provides more clarity on the agent’s break-in to the government’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal.

“I think it’s important to stress that there’s no data of any person which has been accessed here, as I am advised, there’s no impact to the system. So, actually, as I am advised, that the impact to our systems is very minor,” he told News24 this morning.

“The impact is minor in the sense that no person’s data was accessed here, we’re we’re not talking about a system which has been affected in any way.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called the news that an OpenAI agent accessed the government’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal “extraordinary” as she urged the Australian government for a moratorium on AI while it assessed the risks of the unregulated technology.

“Australians are rightly worried and concerned about the power of this technology and the lack of regulation and the lack of guardrails,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

“We have to take action. And I urge the prime minister to not waste this moment. Big AI needs regulation, and it’s not there yet. And we should put a pause, put a moratorium before we let them run loose here in Australia.”

Albanese is still speaking at a press conference in New York, and has been asked whether there is a possibility other services have been breached without the government’s knowledge.

“Be clear, this is not something that I’m not aware of happening anywhere else. So when you have new precedents set, that is one of the reasons why we need to take all of these issues very seriously,” he told reporters.

“We’re aware of the risk of artificial intelligence … But we need to make sure that systems are put in place and protocols are put in place as well, and Mr Altman certainly has acknowledged and has said that, [and] I’ve invited further discussions with him as well that their protocols were not up to scratch here.”

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, following the ex-movie mogul’s conviction at a retrial last year.

Weinstein, 74, was convicted in June 2025 of first-degree criminal sexual act for assaulting Miriam Haley at his Manhattan apartment, the culmination of a six-year legal saga that saw his 2020 conviction overturned by New York’s highest court. Weinstein has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Wednesday praised Haley for her testimony and said he was moved by her courage.

A Weinstein spokesman said in a statement that Weinstein maintains his innocence and strongly disagrees with the sentence imposed by Judge Curtis Farber.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed an AI agent from OpenAI accessed public and non-public files from the government’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal.

Speaking to a press conference from New York, Albanese confirmed no personal information was believed to have been accessed at this stage.

“A forensic investigation, aided by the Australian Signals Directorate, is now under way to ascertain more information, including what other government systems were affected. The Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal is a public-facing statistics portal that contains non-sensitive Medicare information relating to data and statistics, such as spending,” he told reporters.

“No personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing. Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the Services Australia network.”

Albanese said he had also spoken to the chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, about the breach.

“I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.”