Acting prime minister Richard Marles has defended the Australian government’s response to an OpenAI breach of the Medicare website, saying the incident was investigated and publicly addressed within 14 days of officials becoming aware of it.
Mr Marles said the matter had been escalated to the highest levels of government after an email was sent to a public address within Services Australia.
“If we take a step back, an email goes to effectively a public email address within Services Australia, and 14 days later we are standing before you,” he said.
He said officials had needed time to assess the information and understand its significance in an emerging situation, while also weighing the consequences of making a public statement before all the facts were known.
“We needed to make sure that we could stand here with confidence to give that assurance to have gone public without all the facts at hand, or without that level of confidence would I think have been reckless,” Mr Marles said.
The acting prime minister said the government’s assessment was that the impact of the incident had been minor, while stressing that it remained serious.
“It is important for us to speak publicly in terms of public transparency in being able to stand before the Australian people right now, and to do so with a sense of confidence – not complete knowledge, but with a sense of confidence – that the impact of this particular incident was minor, albeit it is a serious incident,” he said.
