The child then touched a plasma globe in a gallery before their hands caught fire, causing second degree burns to their wrists, hands and fingers.<\/p>\n
DISR admitted it had failed to comply with its safety duties under the Work Health<\/a> and Safety Act and should have taken other measures to eliminate or minimise risk.<\/p>\n Colin Radford, the CEO of Comcare, said in a statement:<\/p>\n double quotation markThis was not an isolated event. The child\u2019s injuries marked the sixth safety incident in five months involving the globes. \u2026<\/p>\n Questacon\u2019s response to these incidents was inadequate. It\u2019s a large, interactive facility with inherent workplace health and safety risks that require a proactive approach and constant vigilance.<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a023.02 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Interest rate rise next week only a little less likely after jobless rise<\/p>\n Financial markets are pricing in a greater (but still small) chance the Reserve Bank might leave interest rates on hold after a surprise rise in unemployment.<\/p>\n As we reported earlier, an unexpectedly large number of people started looking for work, pushing up the jobless rate.<\/p>\n The Australian dollar has fallen from US70.36 cents to 70.22, as traders account for the lower chance of an interest rate rise here. Bond markets also dropped a little, predicting lower interest rates in future.<\/p>\n Sharemarkets are up, with the benchmark ASX200 up from 8,656 points to 8,691.3 points, still down from yesterday.<\/p>\n The RBA is still more likely to raise rates than not when its board meets next Tuesday, in part because the labour market is still very strong. Since the end of last year, Australia has added 110,000 full-time jobs and 66,700 more part-time jobs. The workforce now includes a record 14,836,000 people.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.51 EDT<\/p>\n Surprise rise in unemployment to 4.6% The unemployment rate has unexpectedly risen to 4.6%, the highest since November 2021, August data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.<\/p>\n The jobless rate rose both in seasonally adjusted and trend terms, from 4.5% in July.<\/p>\n The rise was mostly due to more people looking for jobs, with an extra 28,000 unemployed Australians in August. An extra 46,000 people took on part-time jobs but 6,000 full-time jobs disappeared.<\/p>\n Markets were expecting a much smaller change in the number of people employed and looking for work, predicting a steady 4.5% unemployment rate.<\/p>\n The higher jobless rate is unlikely to stop the Reserve Bank from raising interest rates next Tuesday. The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, said on Tuesday she thought the jobs market was still tight while unemployment was near 4.5%, adding:<\/p>\n double quotation markI think between 4.5 and 5 will probably take enough heat out of the labour market that it\u2019ll ease pressure on inflation.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.30 EDT<\/p>\n Marles says no individual medical data accessed by Open AI agent<\/p>\n Government services minister, Katy Gallagher, said the AI model accessed only publicly available, aggregated information from the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service Portal.<\/p>\n double quotation markOn the website that it accessed, the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service Portal is a standalone website. It\u2019s public\u2013facing, and it is not in any way related to Medicare in terms of claims, payments, and processing individual information.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a completely different system, and the two shouldn\u2019t be conflated. It\u2019s a public website. It\u2019s most often used by researchers and academics, who get that aggregated data about benefits statistics, prescribing statistics, to use in their own research.<\/p>\n Deputy prime minister Richard Marles said the incident was \u201cvery serious\u201d, but its impact was \u201crelatively minor\u201d.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe are talking about aggregated medical statistics. No individual\u2019s medical data was accessed here. The system itself has not been in any way compromised. The impact of this event is minor, but it is a very serious incident because, in an unintended way, an AI agent has entered into an Australian government website in a way which is unauthorised.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.15 EDT<\/p>\n Minns says OpenAI agent infiltrated NSW crime data agency Boscar NSW premier Chris Minns says OpenAI agents may have also accessed information held by the state\u2019s Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Boscar).<\/p>\n Minns said he was first alerted to the incident after a call from the PM.<\/p>\n double quotation markThe prime minister called me late last night in Sydney, it was early morning in New York, and he told me about this breach and his real concerns as it relates to safety and security of information held by government agencies, particularly the circumstances relating to it.<\/p>\n Minns described the incident as \u201ca big concern for us in New South Wales\u201d.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe do believe there\u2019s been access to a New South Wales government agency as well.<\/p>\n Not private information, not personal information, but a similar example of what is generalised information but was not released to the public, being accessed by an open AI agent.<\/p>\n Minns said an investigation into the incident and the government\u2019s cyber-security vulnerabilities will be launched.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe need to and will examine its impact, both the technology and the vulnerabilities in our confidential information.<\/p>\n New South Wales will be working with commonwealth intelligence agencies to get to the bottom of it, firstly to identify how this happened and secondly to breach the gap so that it doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.13 EDT<\/p>\n Marles says many ministers have known of hack \u2018less than a week\u2019<\/p>\n Marles is getting pressed on the timeline surrounding the breach and when Australians were told, saying many government ministers have only known about the hack for a \u201cless than a week\u201d.<\/p>\n double quotation markMaking this public has its own consequences. We needed to do it with a certain amount of information at hand.<\/p>\n The incident itself is obviously very serious. It\u2019s very serious that we\u2019ve got an AI agent having gained unauthorised access into an Australian website. Now, the moment that we felt that we were in a position to have that information at hand and to responsibly inform the Australian public, we have.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.55 EDT<\/p>\n Marles \u2018grateful\u2019 to OpenAI for engaging after Medicare hack<\/p>\n Richard Marles, the acting prime minister, is speaking in Sydney about the OpenAI hack. He said the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will institute a taskforce to look at the incident and examine Australia\u2019s posture with respect to cyber threats.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will look at the security of government networks, it will look at the legal arrangements that we have in place in respect of an incident of this kind,\u201d Marles said.<\/p>\n double quotation markI want to say and acknowledge that OpenAI have been working with us very cooperatively here. They have clearly notified us of this and engagement with them has been critical to understanding what has occurred. We are grateful for that. That said, what has occurred here is obviously completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n All of this, I think, we can take as a warning in relation to the development of AI itself. It is so important that this technology, which represents such an enormous opportunity for humanity, is nevertheless being developed in a way where the guardrails, the safeguards, are well ahead of the capability itself.<\/p>\n Richard Marles. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAP<\/p>\n The government services minister, Katy Gallagher, said she has requested a fast-tracking of funds earmarked in the federal budget to safeguard Services Australia and other government websites.<\/p>\n double quotation markI\u2019ve also asked whether the $160 million we had in the last budget to do a cyber uplift of Services Australia essential infrastructure, can or should be accelerated.<\/p>\n And also that legacy public\u2013facing websites, I\u2019ve asked that the information there be moved to data.gov.au, or put on alternative existing secure platforms, or they get decommissioned. This is a legacy system. It dates back decades.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.50 EDT<\/p>\n \u2018We want big tech to take accountability,\u2019 Wells says after Medicare hack<\/p>\n Anika Wells, the federal communications minister, just spoke in Brisbane. She was asked about OpenAI, and had this to say:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe want big tech to take accountability. We want an unregulated industry to implement some basic safety standards here on Australian shores, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be trying to do when I introduce the digital duty of care in October.<\/p>\n Wells said an investigation into the matter is ongoing, confirming the Australian Signals Directorate is still looking into whether there had been any criminal breaches here, and if so, if there should be repercussions.<\/p>\n Anika Wells. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAPShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.37 EDT<\/p>\n Greens call for US ambassador to be grilled over Medicare hack<\/p>\n The Greens have called the OpenAI incident \u201ca serious attack on Australia\u2019s sovereign interests\u201d.<\/p>\n The acting Greens leader, Mehreen Faruqi, has called for the new US ambassador, David Brat, to be called in by the government over the incident revealed this morning.<\/p>\n \u201cThis breach by a foreign AI company on an Australian government database is deeply alarming and brings home the risks that these out of control tech corporations pose. The fact that the government did not even know it happened is disturbing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n double quotation markThese billion dollar corporations will not take taskforce investigations or statements seriously. They will respond to strength. Now is the time for the prime minister to fight for Australia\u2019s interests and implement a moratorium on data centres in Australia until we have regulations protecting people and the country.<\/p>\n If hacking Medicare and taking two months to alert the government doesn\u2019t push Labor to treat AI with the seriousness it deserves, what will?<\/p>\n![\"Questacon\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5114.jpg\")
Questacon. Photograph: Suzanne Long\/AlamyShare<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Luca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790219291_289_Luca_Ittimani.png\")
Luca Ittimani<\/p>\nLuca Ittimani<\/p>\n![\"Achol](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790219292_929_Achol_Arok,_L.png\")
Achol Arok<\/p>\nAchol Arok<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790219292_132_Tom_McIlroy.png\")
Tom McIlroy<\/p>\n