Australia news LIVE: Chalmers to reveal $6 billion budget boost ahead of interest rate decision; Cybersecurity experts say government blew OpenAI breach out of proportion

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Monday, September 28. Here’s what is making headlines today.

Australia’s decision to back in the US’ war against Iran in February was “not a mistake”, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Matt Thistlethwaite said this morning, as the effects of the conflict continue to be felt around the world.

Asked if the government might have made a different decision if it had been able to foresee the economic fallout of the war on Australia, Thistlethwaite told News24:

“We supported it in the beginning because it was aimed at ensuring that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon, and that was the right thing to do, and we stand by that. So that was not a mistake. That was the right thing to do.

“But this conflict has now dragged on for too long, in our view, and the Australian people have every right to be completely frustrated by this ongoing conflict and its stop-start nature ... because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, it’s forcing up fuel costs and energy costs throughout the world.”

Fuel prices have surged across the country in September due to the conflict, which has closed the Strait of Hormuz and prevented oil supplies from travelling through the critical choke point.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran has not been formally notified of US President Donald Trump’s rejection of its proposed deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Araghchi said Tehran awaited a US response through mediators after Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to resume negotiations.

Speaking from New York, Araghchi told NBC that Iran was “fully prepared for the war to be resumed”.

He added, however: “At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose.”

Staying with the Finance Minister, Gallagher told Nine’s Today show just now that she “totally rejected” suggestions the government had politicised a breach of the Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal by an OpenAI agent.

Pressed to respond to reports over the weekend that cybersecurity experts and tech investors had accused the government of blowing the incident out of proportion, she said:

“That’s just not true. I completely reject that. As someone who was the minister advised of this incident and who has then talked with others, you know, the PM, the deputy prime minister, this was a significant issue.

“Yes, it was on a public-facing website, and the data that the agent accessed was not personal information or some of those data sets that we protect to the highest level … But it is the first time that we’re aware that an agent acting on its own, not with the authority of OpenAI, was able to get into one of our data systems, and I think we did the right thing.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher is doing the breakfast media rounds ahead of a joint press conference with Treasurer Jim Chalmers to announce the government’s final budget outlook.

The underlying budget deficit came in at about $6 billion less than projected. Gallagher said this was proof of the government’s spending restraint amid extraordinary pressures.

“The fact that the budget and the final budget outcome comes in with half the deficit that we inherited in 2022, and is lower than what we forecast at budget time, shows how much work we have been doing,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast.

“Whether it’s been savings, paying down debt, all of that in the last few years to make sure that the budget’s in as good a shape as possible.”

She said the challenges the government was facing regarding inflation were not a consequence of government spending but a symptom of external circumstances, such as the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran.

Opposition spokesman for defence James Paterson said this morning Australia should be treating the breach of a Medicare system by a rogue AI agent as “a free warning” as he cautioned against alarmist rhetoric about the incident.

“This time, it wasn’t serious in terms of the data that was taken or the method of the intrusion, but next time it could be much more serious,” he told Nine’s Today show.

He said Australia required better artificial intelligence to defend itself from cyber threats.

“We need to be doubling down and investing, particularly in our government networks, to defend them better. We’re going to need to use AI to do that … and we’re going to need to make sure that we put in place appropriate guardrails and oversight of these AI companies.”

Paterson accused the prime minister of stoking panic about the breach, which he said “was a very limited incident”.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government was not considering another cut to the fuel excise as fuel prices surge across the country.

Speaking to News24’s Sunday Agenda yesterday, he said the government was focused on other measures that would ease cost-of-living pressures.

“What we are focused on is other cost of living measures and managing the budget in the most prudent way possible, which gives us the space to look at cost of living as we go forward. Cost of living really has been the challenge since we’ve come to government, and it continues to be that.

“We’re obviously seeing what’s playing out around the world, and we very much know how difficult it is for Australians to make ends meet.”

Fuel prices have risen significantly in recent weeks and have surged by about 40 cents per litre since the beginning of September.

Cape Town: Two separate mass shootings in South African townships within hours of each other have left at least 27 people dead, police said.

South Africa has struggled with violent crime for years, but recent shooting incidents have shocked a country that is used to some of the highest homicide rates in the world.

In the first attack, eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at a small bar near Johannesburg late on Saturday (South Africa time). Police said 17 people were killed.

The attackers fired at patrons outside the bar before moving inside and continuing to shoot. Thirteen men and four women were killed, with at least 15 other people injured, police said.