Topics: OpenAI data breach, Digital Duty of Care
Kieran Gilbert: Shadow Minister for Communications, Sarah Henderson, thanks for your time. I want to ask you about where the digital duty of care hearings are at. First, though, this rapid review into the OpenAI breach. The government says it’s adopting 18 recommendations including toughening government security against breaches of this sort, trying to, engaging more with the industry and having timelines, dates that companies need to report back if they do suffer a breach. I know you haven’t gone through all the details of this.
Senator Henderson: No, just came out of the inquiry that we’ve been running for the last two days.
Kieran Gilbert: Yeah but your response to the fact that the government has moved quite quickly in terms of adopting all 18 recommendations.
Senator Henderson: Well, it needed to because the government has been very slow, basically sitting on its hands for far too long. I have been part of a Senate inquiry into data centres. And we’ve seen the government has talked big about what it’s got to do to get the balance right, and yet we’ve seen very little action in terms of protecting the community interest. Clearly, this data breach should not have happened, but the government was way too slow in alerting Australians that it even happened. It sat on its hands for many weeks.
Kieran Gilbert: Yeah, okay. I’ll let you also get through all of those 18 recommendations at another point and we could talk about it. But we’re running out of time and I want to talk to you about the digital duty of care. Has anything you’ve heard the last 24 hours placated you, eased your concerns around that legislation?
Senator Henderson: No, my concerns are heightened and there’s even more reason not to support this bill. We’ve had wide-ranging concerns about the breadth of the bill, the serious impact on free speech. But also on the fact that the government is removing the mandatory codes and standards, which set out all the prescriptive obligations on the digital platforms and other online services, to do things like remove child sexual abuse material, terrorism material, all of the very detailed requirements, that’s all being removed.
Kieran Gilbert: Because they’re saying it’s not needed with these other changes?
Senator Henderson: It just goes to show that Anika Wells does not know what she’s doing because there’s a power for the eSafety Commissioner to make guidelines. The department argued in estimates last week that they’ll use that power to replace the codes and standards but the guidelines are not enforceable. So it is a real dog’s breakfast. But we’ve got every small business which runs a website dragged into this scheme. We’ve got the broadcasting sector up in arms.
Kieran Gilbert: It’s likely to pass, though, isn’t it, with the Greens?
Senator Henderson: Well, look, I think the Greens have lost the plot. They don’t understand that it’s not just a serious breach of free speech that this bill proposes, but it also fundamentally weakens our current online safety laws, and that is just unacceptable.
Kieran Gilbert: I know the hearing continues. I appreciate you popping up and making the time.
Senator Henderson: Thanks, Kieran.