The federal government is considering legal action against OpenAI after an AI agent gained unauthorised access to a Services Australia portal, but the Opposition has accused Labor of missing the bigger issue.
Environment Minister Murray Watt said a task force investigating the incident would examine whether criminal charges could be brought against OpenAI under existing Australian law.
“If that is possible to happen, then that will happen. If it’s not possible, then clearly that indicates that we need to change Australian laws,” he told Sunrise on Friday.
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But Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said the focus on potential legal action was overlooking what she described as the central concern: whether Australian government systems are adequately protected from increasingly capable artificial intelligence.
“To be honest, I think we’re missing the most important point here,” Hume told Sunrise.
“The only reason we know that this breach occurred was because OpenAI told us so.”
The AI agent accessed public and non-public files on the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service Portal in June.
The government has said the information was non-sensitive and no personal information is believed to have been accessed.
But Hume questioned whether similar incidents could have occurred without being detected.
“The government can’t even say whether a breach like this has happened before,” she said.
“What if it was a less benign breach? What if it was a less benign actor?”
Questions over Services Australia’s cyber defences
Hume argued the incident should prompt greater scrutiny of the cyber security of government systems.
“Clearly Services Australia’s cyber security is woefully inadequate,” she said.
“This is despite the fact that the auditor-general pointed out to Services Australia that its cyber defences were inadequate two years ago.”
Hume said the incident demonstrated the need for Australia to develop stronger domestic AI capability, arguing the technology itself could be part of the solution.
“The irony here is that you actually need AI to fight AI,” she said.
“This should hasten, if anything, our move over in the US to less finger-wagging and Trump one-upmanship and more about embracing these AI companies and bringing them here so we can have frontier models providing sovereign capability to Australia.
“AI is going to happen, the question is whether it happens to us or whether it happens with us.”
Watt pushed back on the criticism, saying the government had already allocated additional funding to strengthen Services Australia’s cyber security.
Government considers new AI laws
Watt said the incident demonstrated the need to ensure Australian laws kept pace with artificial intelligence.
“That’s why, several months ago now, the prime minister flagged an intention to develop new laws. It’s why we’ve been working really hard on it ever since,” Watt said.
“If we need to update our laws to improve the requirements for notification of these kinds of events, then that’s what we’ll do.
“If there’s further safeguards that need to be put in place, that’s what we’ll do as well.”
Watt also said the government was examining why the relevant minister was not informed sooner after OpenAI notified Services Australia.
