2m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 1:00am

Homes affairs chief asked why official dismissed over corruption finding hasn’t been named

Over in Legal and Constitutional Affairs is a convergence of two of my favourite topics — national security and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). Who says Senate Estimates is boring?

Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster is being quizzed about the federal integrity watchdog’s first corruption finding against Foster’s former chief of staff, who is yet unnamed in the public domain.

The NACC’s Operation Kingscliff found the official had engaged in corrupt conduct and abused her office when she gave her sister and her sister’s fiancé an improper benefit, and by misusing official information.

Foster has received questions on this issue both from Liberal Senator James Paterson and Greens Senator David Shoebridge.

Shoebridge wants to know why the public official hasn’t been named publicly to ensure the individual doesn’t accidentally consult for the Commonwealth in the future.

“To make a ruling as to anonymity… were you consulted in any way by the NACC commissioner not to publish the name of your corrupt former chief of staff?” Shoebridge asks.

“From memory, we were given a copy of the report immediately before it was published but I was not consulted on his decision not to name the person. Now did I provide any view or input on the use of a pseudonym,” Foster replied.

Asked what protections are in place, Foster said that knowledge of the person’s identity was very widespread within the department.

Foster confirmed the department had removed its sponsorship of the individual’s security clearance and had notified the security vetting agency of the corruption finding against her.

17m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:45am

📷 Anthony Albanese’s press conferrnece with Singapore PM Lawrence Wong(ABC News: Matt Roberts)(ABC News: Matt Roberts)(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

23m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:40am

Home affairs estimates hearing ‘déjà vu’ for acting shadow home affairs minister

The home affairs department is being questioned in senate estimates, where things kicked off with a bit of tongue and cheek.

Former Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson — who’s now the acting shadow home affairs minister after Andrew Hastie stepped down late last week — is first up to ask questions.

He starts by greeting the Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster and saying it’s a bit of “déjà vu”.

“You probably thought you’d seen the back of me and I certainly thought I had seen the back of you, but here we are,” Senator Paterson says.

Labor frontbencher Murray Watt, who’s representing the portfolio for the government then chimes in.

“Congratulations on your appointment as acting shadow minister for home affairs…acting, interim, temporary,” Watt says.

“Indeed, hopefully,” Paterson replies before some laughter erupts across the room.

31m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:31am

AFP, ASIO portfolio changs ensures more seamless operations: Home affairs secretary

The Department of Home Affairs is up in Senate Estimates.

Currently Environment Minister Murray Watt is being grilled by Acting Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson about why the government made significant machinery of government changes (basically who national security agencies report to) after this year’s federal election.

Ministerial responsibility for the Australian Federal Police and the nation’s domestic spy agency ASIO were shifted from the Attorney-General’s department and returned to the Department of Home Affairs portfolio.

This essentially reversed the changes Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made when Labor returned to office in 2022.

Why is this important? Paterson is trying to make the point that Albanese should never have made the changes and that national security was compromised as a result.

Is that fair? Well, we do know from widespread reporting (including by this journo here) that issues such as the terrorism relisting process, the handling of the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks and even the caravan hoax plot were all “complicated” by these changes and there were, at times, miscommunication or the double-handling of issues.

Asked to give her view, Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster said she believed the changes were practical and things will operate more seamlessly now.

“Senator, clearly Minister Burke and I have discussed the opportunity presented by the machinery of government changes — and the capacity for us to strengthen strong links between the department and operational agencies… and to cite a couple of simple examples,” Foster says.

“Having all of us reporting to one minister allows us to do things like prepare a coordinated brief for cabinet committee meetings to have very clearly established protocol for who briefs the minister,” she says.

36m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:26am

What lessons have been learnt from the previous strategic partnership?(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

The final question is about the second comprehensive strategic partnership, and whether there’s been lessons learnt from the previous agreement.

Lawrence Wong says the first partnership agreement has brought Singapore and Australia’s economic ties closer.

He says the second comprehensive strategic partnership will build on the first agreement.

Anthony Albanese says the agreement will build on the relationship.

“We can be certain of our relationship, of our values, our history, of our understanding of each other, as well. We’re both Commonwealth nations. We participate in so many areas, and the people-to-people exchanges are very important as well,” Albanese says.

40m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:22am

Albanese says investigation will determine role of communications department in outage

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has been asked whether it’s disappointed Singapore has been dragged into the triple-0 outage as a result of what Optus has done.

And separately for Anthony Albanese, he’s been asked whether the communications department bears some responsibility in the delays for taking action on the triple-0 outage.

Wong says he fully understands the anger, frustration and outrage at what happened.

“I’ve extended my condolences to those impacted by the outage including the family members and loved ones of those who lost their lives, which is tragic,” Wong says.

“All I can do is to say, from a government’s perspective, we expect our companies to act responsibly and will certainly expect Singtel and Optus to comply fully with the laws,” he says.

Albanese says an independent investigation will be undertaken to make sure the outage doesn’t happen again.

44m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:18am

Albanese says Australia and Singapore share common view about multilateralism

The leaders have been asked how Singapore and Australia and work together to keep multilateralism alive in a “troubled world”.

Singapore’s PM Lawrence Wong says the nations are taking “concrete steps” to work together on areas of trade to climate action.

Anthony Albanese says the world has become more uncertain than it has been in the past.

He says Australia and Singapore share a common view about the importance of multilateralism, free and fair trade and multilateral institutions.

“We very much support multilateralism as a pillar of our foreign policy … Australia supports the goals of the partnership. We will consider our position on the partnership but we participate across so many gatherings,” Albanese says.

47m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:15am

Lawrence Wong says Singapore expects Singtel to act responsibly(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

The leaders have been asked about the Optus triple-0 network failure which resulted in the deaths of four Australians.

Singapore’s PM has been asked whether or not his government, who own a part of Singtel, the company that own Optus, can guarantee the outage won’t happen again.

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese has been asked what responsibility the communications department should take for missing two emails sent the department notifying them of the outage.

Albanese says the Optus issue was raised, and thanked Wong’s condolences. He sidestepped the question on the email.

Wong says his government expects Singtel behave responsibly and comply with domestic laws.

“I have no doubt that Singtel, as a parent company of Optus in this instance, will extend its full support to the independent investigation happening,” Wong says.

53m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:10am

Singapore’s PM says economic resilience MOU will ensure supply lines remain open

The prime ministers have been asked whether they could share more details on what form the Memorandum of Understanding in economic resilience will take.

Lawrence Wong says the agreement will broadly look at a range of essential supplies, food, medical and experiences on COVID-19.

“It [COVID] was a difficult time. But because of the trust Australia and Singapore had we kept supply lines flowing. We had vaccine swaps to support one another,” Wong says.

“Building on that experience, we believe we can work out a framework on a continuing basis to ensure that the supply chains are continuing to flow and the shipping continues between the two and this will help both in a time of crisis or disruption,” he says.

55m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:07am

Albanese says it will be ‘important’ for Australia to have access to Singapore’s ports(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stepped up to answer that question I mentioned in the earlier post.

Albanese says the availability of Singapore ports and air access is “important” for Australia to have a presence in South-East Asia.

To the second part of the question, which was about green energy, Albanese says Singapore is working on creating a power grid.

“We need more co-operative action towards our common goal which is reducing emissions to reduce the impact of climate change,” Albanese says.

59m agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:03am

Australian military presence in Singapore still being considered: Wong

The first question is to Lawrence Wong, who has been asked whether the upgraded defence cooperation could potentially involve an Australian troop presence in Singapore.

Wong says Singapore wants to see Australia as a resident power in Asia.

The Singapore prime minister says the two nations are still nutting out the details, but he says it will mean Australia expand it’s military presence in Asia.

“We believe this will be critical and important for Asia’s stability and security,” Wong says.

1h agoWed 8 Oct 2025 at 12:01am

Singapore’s PM says upgraded partnership will enhance defence cooperation

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong is speaking now where he’s marked the 60 year relationship between Australia and Singapore.

“We are grateful for your friendship and steadfast support of the decades. We also mark 50 years since the Singapore armed forces started training in Australia,” Wong says.

He says Australia and Singapore have forged closer ties, from disaster relief and business links.

Wong says the upgraded comprehensive strategic partnership will enhance defence cooperation and improve military reciprocal access.

“We will cooperate in new and emerging areas like cyber, digital space and artificial intelligence. This will enable us to shape international standards and harness the transformative potential of these new technologies,” Wong says.

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:57pm

Albanese heralds upgraded comprehensive strategic partnership with Singapore(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has just stepped up in the prime minister’s courtyard.

Albanese says the leaders have launched an upgraded comprehensive strategic partnership.

The PM says it will increase defence cooperation, expand the economic partnership, support action on climate change, pandemic preparedness and development on artificial intelligence.

He says the the prime ministers also discussed the recent Optus triple-0 outage.

“I thank Prime Minister Wong for his commitment to this vision and I thank Singapore for six decades of partnership. This has been a partnership between leaders, between nations and most importantly between peoples,” Albanese says.

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:48pm

When Optus emailed the wrong address, why didn’t anybody see it?

That’s the question that has consumed senators for about half an hour now, with both the Greens and the Liberals incredulous that Deputy Secretary James Chisholm and his team missed two emails from Optus about their outage, for over a day.

We learn that it was sent to an address that had been used for all sorts of different notifications and was too crowded.

But a few months ago (Chisholm says “many” months but Sarah Henderson says she understands it wasn’t very long ago), they set up a new address just for serious telco outages.

The department officials say Optus was using the new address for other notifications and it’s not clear why they didn’t use it for this one.

They are also quick to emphasise the email did not mention that 600 calls had not been connected.

But why didn’t they have an auto-forward switched on, or some other redundancy arrangements for something they have just changed?

“The redundancy arrangements here are Optus complying with its obligations,” Chisholm retorts. He has been visibly angry over the course of this questioning and insistent that all fault is with Optus, not with his department.

The senators aren’t impressed with the response. “This is looking like a debacle, Mr Chisholm,” offers Henderson.

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:44pm

Glencore bailout a bandaid: Littleproud

Nationals leader David Littleproud has described an anticipated bailout of a major Queensland copper smelter as a bandaid that does not fix the underlying problem.

It’s expected the federal government will join with their state counterparts to keep Glencore’s Mount Isa Copper Smelter and Townsville Refinery operating.

Littleproud told Sky News while it was great jobs at the smelter were being saved, energy prices remain the core issue.

“Unless governments are prepared to face up to the fundamentals we are simply kicking this down the road,” he said.

“Let’s have the courage as a country to face into these problems knowing that we have sovereignty of all of our resources.”

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:36pm

Albanese to step up with Singapore’s PM shortly

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to step up with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong shortly.

We expect they’ll only be taking a few questions, but we’ll bring you what they say here live.

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:19pmOptus sent email about outage to the wrong address(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

The communications department did not find out about the Optus outage until more than a day after it occurred because an email was sent to the wrong address, Senate estimates has heard.

The extraordinary revelation was made by Deputy Secretary James Chisholm, the top public servant in the comms portfolio.

He says two emails from Optus on Thursday, September 18 — one at 2:45pm when the failure was detected, and another at 2:52pm when it was fixed — were sent to an old address.

The address was still working and the email was sent, but the inbox was not monitored and the department didn’t hear about the outage until 3:30pm the next day when the regulator, the ACMA, informed it.

The department subsequently found the emails.

A heated exchange unfolded at estimates as incredulous senators ask how the emails could have been missed. The department says the correct email was on the ACMA website, and the error is the fault of the telcos.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Chisholm was “incredibly misleading” in his opening statement this morning, when he said the department was notified on Thursday, given they didn’t actually know about it until Friday.

1h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 11:04pm

New emergency warning system set to be ready next year

A new emergency warning system is set to be ready by October next year.

The National Messaging System (NMS) will send targeted warning messages to people whose safety may be at risk due to a natural disaster, security threat (such as terrorism), biosecurity incidents or health emergencies (like a pandemic).

Deputy coordinator-general Joe Buffone has told senate estimates the NMS is currently being built.

“It is on track … we are looking at having it ready by October 2026 ahead of the high-risk weather season,” he said.

“We still are having to do some work with the states and territories to make sure that it becomes fully operational.

“From a technical perspective, from the build, it is on track to be delivered October next year.”

According to the National Emergency Management Authority, the system will be “more reliable, accurate, and efficient than current systems.”

The alert message will include the type of emergency, where it is, the response needed and where more information can be found.

2h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 10:47pm

Nearly $1 billion spent to help people impacted by natural disasters

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is up before estimates. They’re in charge of leading and coordinating Australia’s approach to emergency management.

We’ve heard the Australian government has spent over $605 million through the disaster recovery payment and almost $215 million through the disaster recovery allowance so far in 2025.

National Emergency Management Agency coordinator-general Brendan Moon told the committee it had been a particularly busy year for emergency services.

“Over the past 12 months Australia has experienced one of its most complex and demanding high-risk weather seasons,” he said

2h agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 10:42pm

What is the purpose of the triple-0 custodian bill?

The communications department offers an explanation.

Under current arrangements, regulators can only check in on telcos’ compliance with triple-0 laws when there is, or there is suspected to be, a breach.

The law would instead allow ongoing checks and information-gathering powers to ensure telcos are complying.

But the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young wants to know whether the government will go further by intervening to require telcos to enact “temporary roaming” during outages, such as natural disasters, to keep people connected.

The recent Bean review has left this for industry to implement, but Hanson-Young says they are dragging their feet. There’s no direct answer.