The Reporting Rort
- Opened on fileNobody has to tell
The reporting runs one way. A Centrelink recipient given a notice has 14 days to report a change, and failing to comply is an offence; agency officers, not judges, signed 357,864 criminal-law authorisations for telecommunications data in 2024-25. When an OpenAI agent got inside a Services Australia portal on 18 June 2026, by the government's account, no Australian law we could find required the company to tell anyone. OpenAI told CNN it became aware of the access only in August, and its own 28 September post dates the finding to mid-August; on 10 September, 84 days after the access, it emailed a vulnerability disclosure inbox, the kind of channel the state requires every agency to run, and the government says that email is how it found out. OpenAI's 28 September post named four Australian government bodies, and the NSW Government's statement adds a fifth, the National Parks and Wildlife Service: by its account, OpenAI reported on 1 October that its model had entered an NPWS web application in June. On the Guardian's account, OpenAI told NSW after a 48-hour review that began when it became aware. Both sides say no personal information has been found, and OpenAI says it also notified the Australian Signals Directorate. OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, wrote of the company's wider review, in a post that as reported does not mention Australia: 'We have not been as fast as we would have liked but we are trying to balance our desire for transparency with gaining a clear understanding from petabytes of agent activity logs, and working with impacted organizations.' The Commonwealth holds its own agencies to 'as soon as possible'; NSW gives its agencies 24 hours from detection and classification. The case does not rest on harm: the Opposition's James Paterson rated the breach 'at the bottom end of the spectrum of seriousness' and said 'it is to OpenAI's credit that they told us'. OpenAI's own submission to Parliament's AI committee, dated 14 September, says 'Shared definitions, severity levels and reporting thresholds for significant AI incidents would also help countries respond together.' Where Parliament has written corporate reporting duties, they have been enforced, if slowly; for frontier AI firms it has never written one. A review announced on 24 September will inform recommendations on reporting requirements for AI-driven cyber incidents and on AI firms' notification requirements, with no due date in its terms of reference. In an ABC report published on 25 September, Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton said the government wants to introduce legislation mandating AI safety standards by the end of 2026 and hopes to pass it in early 2027, the passage date the Prime Minister gave for Australian standards for AI on 15 July, before the government knew of the incident; on 1 October the Prime Minister said the government looks forward to 'at least an exposure draft' of that legislation by the end of the year. As of 3 October no draft has been published that we could find, and whether it will put a reporting duty on AI developers is not yet known.
Fig. 02 / What happened
Fig. 03 / Who the record names
How we know
The exhibits sit beside the title above, each tied to the article that documented it. How evidence and sources are graded: evidence grade, source tiers.
What else is connected
Named in this case and in others. A count of where the record names them, not a finding about what they did.
From the desk
- Optus class action trial listed to beginFourteen days · The Reporting RortTests how fast the privacy duty that does exist actually resolves
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The Optus data-breach class action, over a breach made public on 22 September 2022, has its trial listed to begin from 7 June 2027, before Justice Beach, who also hears the Australian Information Commissioner's separate civil penalty action against Optus, filed 8 August 2025; up to $2.22 million per contravention is in play in that case. Justice Beach has ordered the parties, reportedly including the regulators, to mediation by 12 February 2027 (MLex, one outlet). Watch it as the clearest test in this case of how long even a written duty takes to bite.
- New York's RAISE Act takes effectNobody has to tell · The Reporting Rort72-hour reporting duty for frontier developers commences
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New York's RAISE Act, which would require frontier AI developers to report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, takes effect on this date. It was not in force at the time of the Services Australia incident. Watch whether its commencement changes how OpenAI or other frontier developers describe their reporting practices anywhere, including in Australia, and whether Australia's own promised AI standards gain an incident-notification duty of their own.
- Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence reportsThe inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortThe Prime Minister said the incident will be referred to this committee
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The Prime Minister said the incident would be referred to the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, established by Parliament on 20 August 2026. The committee is due to report on 30 November 2026. Watch for whether its report addresses AI firms’ notification duties, one of the topics of the PM&C rapid review, whose published terms of reference carry no due date.
- NSW supplementary budget estimates, 26 to 30 OctoberThe fifth system · The Reporting RortPortfolio committees report by 24 December
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NSW supplementary budget estimates run from 26 to 30 October 2026, and the portfolio committees must report to the House by 24 December. The initial hearings, from 18 August to 2 September, included Minister Penny Sharpe's portfolio on 18 August, before the disclosures. Watch for questions on the NPWS incident and the BOCSAR case in the hearings.
- Senate Supplementary Budget Estimates, 26 to 29 OctoberThe inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortGroup A on 26 and 27 October, Group B on 28 and 29 October; every program is still to be finalised
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Senate Supplementary Budget Estimates run from 26 to 29 October 2026, in a House-only sitting week. Group A, on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October, includes Finance and Public Administration (Finance; Parliament; PM&C) and Legal and Constitutional Affairs (Attorney-General’s; Home Affairs). Group B, on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 October, includes Community Affairs (Health, Disability and Ageing; Social Services), Economics (Industry, Science and Resources; Treasury) and Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (Defence; Foreign Affairs and Trade). At the May and June Budget Estimates, Services Australia was examined under the Finance portfolio, ASD under Defence and AIHW under Health; if that holds, Services Australia falls in Group A and ASD in Group B. Every program is ‘to be finalised’. Watch for questions on the incident, the rapid review, the forensic report, the referral to the Joint Select Committee and the PSPF Direction.
- NSW Parliament sitsThe fifth system · The Reporting RortBoth Houses sit on Tuesday 13 October
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Both Houses of NSW Parliament next sit on Tuesday 13 October 2026. Watch whether the Government gives the Legislative Council the 'more information' that Penny Sharpe promised on 24 September, and whether any member asks about NPWS or an audit of government systems.
- PSPF Policy Explanatory Note 002-2026 dueNobody has to tell · The Reporting RortPromised 'by 13 October 2026'; not published as at 3 October
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PSPF Direction 002-2026, dated 29 September 2026, promises a Policy Explanatory Note 'by 13 October 2026'; it had not been published in the PSPF library as at 3 October. Watch whether the Note sets any timeframe for an entity to report an incident, or tells entities to search their logs for AI agent activity. The Direction itself does neither.
- Parliament returnsFourteen days · The Reporting RortFirst sitting since the disclosure
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Parliament returns on 12 October 2026 for its first sitting since the Services Australia access became public. Watch Question Time and any ministerial statement for whether an AI incident-notification duty, the empty row this article records, is raised at all. This article's own test: whether the gap it documents becomes a question anyone in Parliament asks.
- Parliament returnsNobody has to tell · The Reporting RortFirst sitting since the incident became public
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Parliament returns for its first sitting since the incident became public. Watch Question Time and any ministerial statement on reporting duties for AI firms, and watch whether Andrew Gee's AI Kill Switch and Data Centre Control Bill 2026, still before the House as a private member's bill, moves at all. Also watch whether any referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board, or any outcome of the PM&C rapid review's consideration of AI firms' notification requirements, is announced around the sitting.
- Parliament returns, first sitting since the disclosureThe inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortWatch Question Time and any ministerial statement on the incident
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Parliament returns on 12 October 2026 for its first sitting since the 24 September disclosure. Hansard for 14 to 17 September, the sitting days that overlapped with Services Australia’s handling of OpenAI’s email, carries no reference to the incident. Watch this sitting for Question Time on the breach, any ministerial statement, and whether the government’s taskforce or the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence reports back to the chamber.
- Record: article 3 corrected, 10 October 2026Fourteen days · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · one correction, 10 October 2026
The note above, dated 25 September 2026, said that “under the Privacy Act, only a court can impose a fine”. That overstated it. Only a court can impose a civil penalty, but since the 2024 amendments the OAIC can also issue infringement notices, without court action, for non-compliance with some information requests. The note now says that only a court can impose a civil penalty.
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CORRECTED 10 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 3, Fourteen days).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Two dated Correction paragraphs were added: one in the section on how fast the duty bites, where the sentence it corrects was changed, and one after the Correction of 25 September 2026 on the Bunnings and Kmart outcomes, where the word “fine” became “civil penalty”; since the 2024 amendments the OAIC can also issue infringement notices, without court action, for non-compliance with some information requests. The paragraph on ACMA's draft releases said ACMA told Optus that a notice of $1.5 million to $3 million would sit at the lower end if it offered an enforceable undertaking. ACMA's email of 27 November 2023 makes the lower end depend on an undertaking 'with terms acceptable to the ACMA'; the sentence now says so. Reference 64 was added: the ACMA Disclosure Log 153 documents. The update date in the byline moves to 10 October 2026.
STILL OPEN: any written answer ACMA gave to questions on notice from the 10 February hearing, and the Tribunal's own reasons for the Bunnings outcome, have not been read for this article.
NEXT DATE: 12 October 2026, when Parliament returns.
- Deadline for the NSW questionsThe fifth system · The Reporting Rort5pm AEDT: DCCEEW, the Premier's Department, Cyber Security NSW and OpenAI
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The deadline for the questions this article puts to the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the NSW Premier's Department, Cyber Security NSW (through the Department of Customer Service media unit) and OpenAI is 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. Each answer is added to the article as a dated update. For a recipient whose delivery is confirmed, a question with no published answer by the deadline is recorded as 'No answer had been published by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October'. Update, 9 October 2026: the deadline has passed. No question has been put to the NSW Premier's Department, whose questions go through a web form. The outcome for each of the other parties is in the record of that date.
- PM&C's consultation on the AI standards closes, 5pm AEDTNobody has to tell · The Reporting RortThe paper proposes that authorised frontier labs disclose 'defined reportable AI incidents', with no clock, named authority or penalty
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Submissions on PM&C's consultation paper 'Getting it right: Building AI infrastructure that works for Australia' close at 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The paper, released on 17 September, proposes that frontier labs granted authorisation to undertake large-scale AI training in Australia disclose 'defined reportable AI incidents' to relevant Australian authorities, and names no clock, no receiving authority and no penalty. Watch for published submissions, including any from OpenAI and Anthropic, and for whether the government says such a duty would reach a lab that trains outside Australia.
- Record: article 1 updated, 9 October 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortThe replies of the Victorian Department of Health, BOCSAR and AIHW Media are printed in full and listed in the right-of-reply record; no response to the second questions to PM&C and OpenAI by the 9 October deadline; the 6 and 8 October extracts are left as published
The replies of the Victorian Department of Health and of BOCSAR, extracts of which are above, are printed here in full, each as the party sent it, with greetings, lead-in lines, sign-offs, contact details, logos and standard notices left out. The extracts above are left as published. The Victorian Department of Health replied on 6 October 2026, from its press office. Its reply has two parts…
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UPDATED 9 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Three update paragraphs added. The first, after the 8 October paragraph on AIHW Media, which is left as published, prints in full, as each party sent it, the statement the Victorian Department of Health gave under the heading ‘Quotes attributable to the Department of Health’ on 6 October 2026, and the email of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research of 7 October 2026, from its Executive Director, Jackie Fitzgerald. Greetings, lead-in lines, sign-offs, contact details, logos and standard notices are left out. It records that the Victorian department gave further points on background, which are not published. The right-of-reply record lists both parties, with the date their questions were sent (2 October 2026) and the reply printed. The second prints in full, in the same way, the reply of AIHW Media of 7 October 2026, extracts of which are in the 8 October paragraph, and the record lists AIHW with the date its questions were sent (2 October 2026) and the reply printed. The third, in the closing section, records the outcome at the 9 October deadline: No response was received from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. No response was received from OpenAI by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. It also prints in full the reply of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of 9 October 2026, and records that no further reply was received from BOCSAR to its further questions of 6 October 2026, or from the Victorian Department of Health to the questions of 6 October 2026 that were due on 9 October 2026, by the deadline. The extracts in the 6 and 8 October paragraphs are history and stay as they were.
STILL OPEN. No response was received from the Victorian Department of Health by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026, to questions 2 and 3 of its email of 6 October 2026. No response was received from BOCSAR by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026, to the question in its email of 2 October 2026 on whether it reported the matter to ASD or any other body. A new question to BOCSAR, numbered 3 in THE RORT's email of 8 October 2026, is due by 5pm AEDT on Wednesday 14 October 2026. Two new questions to the Victorian Department of Health, numbered 1 and 4 in THE RORT's later email of 6 October 2026, are due by 5pm AEDT on Monday 12 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Minister for Cyber Security, were not delivered, as the record of 8 October 2026 states.
NEXT DATES: 5pm AEDT, Monday 12 October 2026, the reply date for the two open questions to the Victorian Department of Health; 12 October 2026, Parliament returns; 5pm AEDT, Wednesday 14 October 2026, the reply date for the new question to BOCSAR.
- Record: article 2 updated, 9 October 2026Nobody has to tell · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · right of reply: the OAIC's statement printed in full; no response to the second questions by the 9 October deadline
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner replied on 9 October 2026, from its media mailbox, to THE RORT's enquiry of 6 October 2026 on the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme and the OpenAI agent incidents, which put three questions and asked for a reply by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. Its reply gave a statement from the OAIC. The statement reads, in full: "The Office of the…
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UPDATED 9 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 2).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Two dated updates added. The first, at the end of the opening section, "The data holder's duty", prints in full the statement the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner gave on 9 October 2026 in answer to THE RORT's enquiry of 6 October 2026, with what was left out of its reply, and the right-of-reply record lists the Office with the date its questions were sent (6 October 2026) and the reply printed. The second, in the closing section, records the state of the right-of-reply offers at the second deadline. The records of 7 and 8 October 2026 are left as published. No figure in the article changed.
STILL OPEN. No response was received from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. No response was received from OpenAI by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. These were the second questions sent on 6 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Minister for Cyber Security, were not delivered, as the record of 7 October 2026 states, and THE RORT will offer four business days from delivery. Any response, or its absence, will be added when it comes in. Whether a referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board is ever made, and what the 24 September rapid review recommends on AI firms' notification duties, remain unresolved.
NEXT DATES: 12 October 2026, Parliament returns; 1 January 2027, New York's RAISE Act takes effect.
- Record: article 4 updated, 9 October 2026The fifth system · The Reporting RortThe replies of the NSW department, the Victorian Department of Health and BOCSAR are printed in full, with what was left out of each; the 9 October deadline outcomes and the NSW department's reply of 9 October are in the article
The replies received to 8 October 2026 are printed here in full, each as the party sent it, and each is followed by what was left out of it. The extracts above are left as published. The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water replied on 6 October 2026, from its media mailbox, to the questions THE RORT sent that day. Its reply reads, in full: 'Thank you for your…
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UPDATED 9 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 4).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Two dated updates added to the closing section, after the 7 October paragraph, which is left as published. The first prints in full, as each party sent it, the reply of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of 6 October 2026 with the NSW Government statement of 2 October 2026 it attached; the statement the Victorian Department of Health gave under the heading 'Quotes attributable to the Department of Health' on 6 October 2026; and the email of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research of 7 October 2026. It lists, after each reply, what was left out of it. It records that the Victorian department gave further points on background, which are not published. The second records the outcome at the 9 October deadline and prints in full the NSW department's reply of 9 October 2026 to its follow-up questions. The right-of-reply record enters the date each set of questions was sent where this desk has it: the Victorian Department of Health and BOCSAR on 2 October 2026; the NSW department, Cyber Security NSW and OpenAI on 6 October 2026, after publication. The NSW Premier's Department is not listed in the right-of-reply record: no question has been put to it, and its questions go through a web form. The earlier extracts in the article are history and stay as they were.
STILL OPEN. No response was received from the Victorian Department of Health by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026, to questions 2 and 3 of its email of 6 October 2026. No response was received from BOCSAR by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026, to the question in its email of 2 October 2026 on whether it reported the matter to ASD or any other body. A new question to BOCSAR, numbered 3 in THE RORT's email of 8 October 2026, is due by 5pm AEDT on Wednesday 14 October 2026. No response was received from OpenAI by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. No response was received from Cyber Security NSW by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. No further reply was received from BOCSAR to its further questions of 6 October 2026, or from the Victorian Department of Health to the questions of 6 October 2026 that were due on 9 October 2026, by the deadline. Two new questions to the Victorian Department of Health, numbered 1 and 4 in THE RORT's later email of 6 October 2026, are due by 5pm AEDT on Monday 12 October 2026. The questions to the NSW Premier's Department go through its web form; the date they are put will be added as a dated update.
NEXT DATES: 5pm AEDT, Monday 12 October 2026, the reply date for the two open questions to the Victorian Department of Health; 13 October 2026, NSW Parliament sits; 5pm AEDT, Wednesday 14 October 2026, the reply date for the new question to BOCSAR.
- Record: article 1 updated, 8 October 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortReplies from BOCSAR and AIHW, both dated 7 October 2026, and the state of the right-of-reply offers at the 8 October deadline are now in the article; the 3 October paragraphs are left as published
BOCSAR has since replied to THE RORT. Its Executive Director, Jackie Fitzgerald, wrote on 7 October that ‘The OpenAI notification of 18 September was directed to the Crime Mapping Tool vendor’, and that BOCSAR ‘first received a Cyber Notification email from the ASD on Monday 21 September 2026’, which ‘was the first correspondence that BOCSAR received on this issue’. She also wrote: ‘While…
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UPDATED 8 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Three update paragraphs were added. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research replied on 7 October 2026, in an email from its Executive Director, Jackie Fitzgerald: the OpenAI notification of 18 September 2026 was directed to the Crime Mapping Tool vendor, and BOCSAR first received a Cyber Notification email from the ASD on Monday 21 September 2026, which was the first correspondence it received on this issue; it found no evidence of access to data that cannot already be accessed through the public tool and no structural vulnerability. AIHW Media replied on 7 October 2026 and said it receives advice from relevant government agencies, including the ASD, on cyber security and AI-related risks, and that it is satisfied the matter has been investigated appropriately. A third update records the right-of-reply offers made on 2 October 2026 and that no response had been received by the deadline from the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or OpenAI. The 3 October paragraphs are left as published; they were true on that date.
STILL OPEN. No response was received from the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or OpenAI to the questions of 2 October 2026 by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. The second set of questions to PM&C and OpenAI, sent on 6 October, is due by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs were not delivered, as the record of 7 October 2026 states. BOCSAR's answer to the 2 October question on whether it reported to the ASD or another body, and its answers to the 6 October questions on the records for 21 June and on the Cyber Portal 24-hour report. AIHW did not answer the questions of 2 October and referred enquiries to the ASD.
NEXT DATE: 9 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the further questions sent on 6 October.
- Record: article 2 updated, 8 October 2026Nobody has to tell · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · right of reply: no response by the 8 October deadline
No response was received from the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or OpenAI to the questions of 2 October 2026 by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. The second set of questions to PM&C and OpenAI, sent on 6 October, is due by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for…
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UPDATED 8 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 2).
ARTICLE CHANGES. One dated update added to the closing section, recording the state of the right-of-reply offers at the first deadline. The records of 24 September and 7 October 2026 are left as published. No figure in the article changed.
STILL OPEN. No response was received from the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or OpenAI to the questions of 2 October 2026 by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. The second set of questions to PM&C and OpenAI, sent on 6 October, is due by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Minister for Cyber Security, were not delivered, as the record of 7 October 2026 states. Any response, or its absence, will be added when it comes in. Whether a referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board is ever made, and what the 24 September rapid review recommends on AI firms' notification duties, remain unresolved.
NEXT DATES: 9 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the second questions to PM&C and OpenAI; 12 October 2026, Parliament returns; 1 January 2027, New York's RAISE Act takes effect.
- Record: article 3 corrected, 8 October 2026Fourteen days · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · three corrections, 8 October 2026
This article previously said that from 13 December 2022 the maximum penalty for a company under the Privacy Act became the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover. That gave the higher maximum as the greater of three figures. Under section 13G(3) of the Privacy Act 1988, as inserted by the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other…
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CORRECTED 8 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 3, Fourteen days).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Three dated Correction paragraphs were added, two in the section on how fast the duty bites and one in the section on where Parliament wrote the duty. The earlier text is left as published. (1) The privacy penalty ceiling for a company: the article gave the greater of three figures; section 13G(3) of the Privacy Act 1988, as inserted in 2022, gives the greater of $50 million and either three times the value of the benefit obtained, where the court can determine it, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover, where it cannot. (2) ACMA's draft releases: the article gave the practice in the present tense and did not say that ACMA's Chair told Senate Estimates on 10 February 2026 that in future ACMA would not consult on media releases before they go public. (3) Bunnings: the article said the Tribunal 'set aside' the finding on APP 3.3; the OAIC's statement says the Tribunal departed from it, and 'set aside' has not been checked against the Tribunal's reasons. References 62 and 63 were added.
STILL OPEN: any written answer ACMA gave to questions on notice from the 10 February hearing, and the Tribunal's own reasons for the Bunnings outcome, have not been read for this article.
NEXT DATE: 12 October 2026, when Parliament returns.
- Record: article 4 updated, 8 October 2026The fifth system · The Reporting RortBOCSAR's reply of 7 October is now in the article; the sentence saying who told BOCSAR was not settled was replaced with an update note
BOCSAR replied to THE RORT on 7 October, in an email from its Executive Director, Jackie Fitzgerald. The paragraph above previously said that who told BOCSAR was not settled on the record and that no source this desk had read reconciled OpenAI's account with the ABC's; that was so when it was written, and the paragraph now carries BOCSAR's account in its own words. The email goes on: 'While…
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UPDATED 8 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 4).
ARTICLE CHANGES. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research replied on 7 October 2026, in an email from its Executive Director, Jackie Fitzgerald. The article now carries its account in its own words: the OpenAI notification of 18 September 2026 was directed to the Crime Mapping Tool vendor; BOCSAR first received a Cyber Notification email from the ASD on Monday 21 September 2026, which was the first correspondence BOCSAR received on this issue; there is no evidence that any data has been accessed that cannot already be accessed through the public web-based Crime Mapping Tool, and no structural vulnerability has been identified. The sentence that said who told BOCSAR was not settled on the record was replaced with an update note saying it was true when written. OpenAI's date for its own notice, and the ABC's report, stay in the article as theirs.
STILL OPEN. BOCSAR's answer to the 2 October question on whether it reported to the ASD or another body; its answers to the 6 October questions on the records for 21 June and on the Cyber Portal 24-hour report.
NEXT DATE: 5pm AEDT, Friday 9 October 2026, the reply date for the further questions sent on 6 October.
- Article updatedThe fifth system · The Reporting Rort
The year, 2026, has been added to the dates OpenAI gives for its notices to the first four bodies (10, 18 and 24 September) and to its mid-August review, here and in the opening, and those dates have been added to the timeline above. Nothing else changed.
- Record: article 1 updated, 7 October 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortRight of reply offered to the agencies and OpenAI on 2 October 2026; the record of 28 September 2026 is left as published
References and, which were bare links, now name the documents they point to: OpenAI's Misalignment Reports and Notices page, with the framework post it was launched alongside, and the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence's own page, which states its appointment and reporting dates.
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UPDATED 7 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1).
ARTICLE CHANGES. No passage of the article changed. This record states where the right of reply stands for the agencies and OpenAI. The record of 28 September 2026, which said questions were being prepared and none had yet been sent, is left as published; it was true on that date.
STILL OPEN. Right of reply: offered by email on 2 October 2026 to the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and OpenAI; a response was requested by 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. Second questions went to PM&C and to OpenAI on 6 October 2026, with a response requested by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Minister for Cyber Security, were not delivered: Home Affairs' mail gateway rejected THE RORT's email three times on 2 October 2026. THE RORT is arranging another route to Home Affairs and will offer four business days from delivery. Any response, or its absence, will be added when it comes in.
NEXT DATES: 8 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the Attorney-General's Department, PM&C and OpenAI; 9 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the second questions to PM&C and OpenAI.
- Record: article 2 updated, 7 October 2026Nobody has to tell · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · right of reply offered 2 October 2026
Reference, cited in this section and in section 3, was a bare link to the Parliament's list of bills before Parliament; it now names that list and the date this desk read it, 3 October 2026.
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UPDATED 7 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 2).
ARTICLE CHANGES. One dated update added to the closing section, recording the right-of-reply offers made after publication. The record of 24 September 2026 is left as published. No figure in the article changed.
STILL OPEN. Right of reply: offered by email on 2 October 2026 to the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and OpenAI; a response was requested by 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. Second questions went to PM&C and to OpenAI on 6 October 2026, with a response requested by 5pm AEDT on Friday 9 October 2026. The questions for the Department of Home Affairs, which include those for the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Minister for Cyber Security, were not delivered: Home Affairs' mail gateway rejected THE RORT's email three times on 2 October 2026. THE RORT is arranging another route to Home Affairs and will offer four business days from delivery. Any response, or its absence, will be added when it comes in. Whether a referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board is ever made, and what the 24 September rapid review recommends on AI firms' notification duties, remain unresolved.
NEXT DATES: 8 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the Attorney-General's Department, PM&C and OpenAI; 9 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, the reply date for the second questions to PM&C and OpenAI; 12 October 2026, Parliament returns; 1 January 2027, New York's RAISE Act takes effect.
- Joint Select Committee on AI, Sydney: OpenAI 2.00pm to 2.50pm AEDT, Anthropic 12.10pmThe inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortOn the committee’s published program; that Jason Kwon appears for OpenAI is OpenAI’s own statement
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The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence sits in the Macquarie Room, NSW Parliament, 6 Macquarie Street, Sydney, on Tuesday 6 October 2026. Its program lists the ABC at 9.30am, Anthropic (Submission 305) at 12.10pm, OpenAI (Submission 11) from 2.00pm to 2.50pm, Microsoft at 3.05pm, Google and Google DeepMind at 3.45pm and the Commonwealth Bank at 4.30pm, adjourning at 5.00pm, Sydney time (AEDT). OpenAI says its Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon, will appear and ‘will answer questions about what we know, how we responded, what steps we have taken, and how we will do better going forward’. It is streamed on YouTube at @AUSParliamentLive and on ParlView. Watch what the committee asks, and what OpenAI answers, on when it found each Australian access, including the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service activity reported on 1 October; why its first notice went to a vulnerability disclosure inbox; how many Australian bodies it has notified; and what it will tell governments in future.
- OpenAI before the Joint Select Committee, 2.00pm AEDTThe fifth system · The Reporting RortOn the committee's published program; that Jason Kwon appears for OpenAI is OpenAI's own statement
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The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence sits in the Macquarie Room, NSW Parliament, 6 Macquarie Street, Sydney, on Tuesday 6 October 2026. Its program lists Anthropic (Submission 305) at 12.10pm and OpenAI (Submission 11) at 2.00pm, with a break at 2.50pm, and adjourns at 5.00pm, Sydney time (AEDT). OpenAI says its Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon, will appear and will answer questions about what it knows and how it responded. Watch what the committee asks, and what OpenAI answers, on when it found the NPWS activity, how the model reached the application, what the 'Tuesday' the Guardian reported was, and whether further Australian bodies are notified.
- Record: article 1 updated, 6 October 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortTwo dated notes were added on 6 October: the NSW Government statement's own words, and the Victorian Department of Health's reply
The Victorian Department of Health has since replied to THE RORT, in a statement under the heading ‘Quotes attributable to the Department of Health’. It says it ‘became aware of this issue on 10 September 2026 after being contacted by OpenAI by email and immediately activated its incident response processes’; that ‘The issue was remediated the same day’; that it ‘undertook a comprehensive…
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UPDATED 6 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1).
ARTICLE CHANGES. The article now carries the NSW Government statement's own words on the data ('accessed public information hosted on a NSW government web application') beside OpenAI's account, and the Victorian Department of Health's reply in a statement attributed to the department: aware on 10 September after OpenAI's email, remediated the same day, no evidence that sensitive, personal, health or patient information was accessed.
STILL OPEN. How the model reached the NPWS application; whether any of the five bodies detected the access itself; whether a key was exposed at VAHI; the review's due date.
NEXT DATE: 5pm AEDT, Thursday 8 October 2026 (Victorian questions), and Friday 9 October 2026 (the further Victorian questions sent on 6 October); 5pm AEDT, Friday 9 October 2026 (NSW questions).
- Record: article 4 updated, 6 October 2026The fifth system · The Reporting RortThe NSW Government statement and a Victorian Department of Health statement arrived on 6 October; one misquoted phrase was corrected
This article previously quoted NSW as saying its investigations 'have not found any unauthorised access to personal information'. Those are the ABC's words, in its own voice, which this article put in quotation marks as NSW's. The NSW Government statement says: 'Current investigations have not identified any unauthorised access to personal information.' The quotation has been corrected.
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UPDATED 6 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 4).
ARTICLE CHANGES. The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water sent THE RORT the NSW Government statement of 2 October; its words on the data, 'accessed public information hosted on a NSW government web application', are now quoted, beside OpenAI's account. The phrase this article had quoted as NSW's, 'have not found any unauthorised access to personal information', was the ABC's paraphrase; the statement says 'Current investigations have not identified any unauthorised access to personal information', and the quotation was corrected. The Victorian Department of Health replied in a statement attributed to the department: it became aware on 10 September after OpenAI emailed it, remediated the same day, and found no evidence that sensitive, personal, health or patient information was accessed.
STILL OPEN. The name of the NPWS application and how the model reached it; whether any key was exposed at VAHI and withdrawn; whether either body reported to ASD or Cyber Security NSW and when; whether the NSW statement will be published on nsw.gov.au.
NEXT DATE: 5pm AEDT, Thursday 8 October 2026, the deadline for the Victorian questions, and Friday 9 October 2026 for the further Victorian questions sent on 6 October; 5pm AEDT, Friday 9 October, the deadline for the NSW questions.
- Record: article 1 updated, 3 October 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortEleven dated notes were added to this article on 3 October, including the fifth body named, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the published 6 October program; questions sent on 2 October carry a deadline of 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October
The count has since grown. Gallagher said at about 12:20pm on 28 September, the ABC reported, that there had not been ‘any further reports’ of breaches beyond those announced the week before. Three days later, on Thursday 1 October, OpenAI reported a fifth body to the NSW Government, by that government’s account: the National Parks and Wildlife Service, set out below. OpenAI’s incident page, in…
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UPDATED 3 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1).
ARTICLE CHANGES. On Thursday 1 October, by the NSW Government’s account, OpenAI reported a fifth Australian government body: an OpenAI model entered a National Parks and Wildlife Service web application in June. The article now carries the NSW and OpenAI accounts side by side, including their difference on whether the data was publicly available, and OpenAI’s incident page, which counts over 100 organisations notified worldwide as of 26 September and says its review remains ongoing. It also adds: the two accounts of who told BOCSAR; the portal still offline on 3 October, with its data on data.gov.au from 23 September; Services Australia’s reporting page, still dated 5 June 2026; the National Cyber Security Coordinator’s ‘We needed to be informed sooner’; the three accounts of who leads the rapid review; the PSPF Direction’s signatory and terms, and that its Explanatory Note was not published by 3 October; the 6 October program, with OpenAI from 2.00pm to 2.50pm AEDT; the Senate inquiry’s 1 October hearing, still listed on the evening of 28 September and no longer listed on 3 October; and the Prime Minister’s 1 October words, ‘at least an exposure draft’ by the end of the year. A key fact on the count was added, the 6 and 26 October watch entries were rewritten, and the case summary was updated the same day.
STILL OPEN. How the model reached the NPWS application, and when OpenAI found it; whether any of the five bodies detected the access itself; whose credentials were retrieved at Services Australia; the review’s due date; the promised referral to the Joint Select Committee.
NEXT DATE: 6 October 2026, 2.00pm AEDT, OpenAI before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney.
- Record: article 2 updated, 3 October 2026Nobody has to tell · The Reporting RortFourteen dated notes were added on 3 October: the duties read from the statutes themselves, the states' own rules after the fifth body was named on 2 October, OpenAI's stated notification standard, and the Prime Minister's 'at least an exposure draft'
This desk has since read the Act itself, in the compilation of 4 June 2026. For a cyber incident with a significant impact on an asset's availability, the responsible entity must report "as soon as practicable, and in any event within 12 hours, after the entity becomes so aware"; for other incidents with a relevant impact, which includes an impact on the confidentiality of stored information, the…
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UPDATED 3 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 2).
ARTICLE CHANGES. The SOCI clocks, the Criminal Code's Part 10.7, California's SB 53, New York's RAISE Act and the EU AI Act are now read from the statutes or Official Journal text; SB 53's deception limb carries its full qualifier. The article adds the PSPF Direction's terms and ASD's 24 and 28 September advice, none of which binds the developer; NSW's 24-hour agency rule, its data breach scheme and Victoria's OVIC scheme, all binding agencies, after a NSW body became the fifth named, on 2 October; the AusTender amendment of 1 October, which lowered a lapsed contract; the Cyber Incident Review Board page, still silent on OpenAI; the voluntary EU code's clocks; the UK's King's Speech; the Gee bill's place in Parliament; OpenAI's own notification standard of 30 September, which states no time limit; and the Prime Minister's 1 October words, with Senator Pocock's criticism and ASD's earlier proposal.
STILL OPEN. Whether the promised exposure draft carries a reporting duty on AI developers, with what clock and to whom; whether the PSPF Explanatory Note due by 13 October sets any reporting timeframe; whether any referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board is made.
NEXT DATE: 9 October 2026, 5pm AEDT, when PM&C's consultation on the AI standards closes.
- Record: article 3 updated, 3 October 2026Fourteen days · The Reporting RortTwo dated notes: rows with times from APRA, NSW and Victoria, and the empty row after the fifth body was named
More rows belong in this ledger, and each names a time. APRA requires banks, insurers and superannuation trustees to notify it of a material information security incident 'no later than 72 hours' after becoming aware of it (CPS 234, since 1 July 2019), of operational risk incidents within 72 hours (CPS 230, from 1 July 2025), and of a disruption to a critical operation outside tolerance 'not…
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UPDATED 3 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 3).
ARTICLE CHANGES. The ledger gains APRA's 72-hour and 24-hour clocks, NSW's 24-hour rule for its agencies, NSW's data breach scheme and Victoria's OVIC scheme. The empty row is unchanged: on 1 October, the day OpenAI reported a fifth Australian government body to the NSW Government, by that government's account, the Prime Minister said the government looks forward to 'at least an exposure draft' of the AI standards legislation by the end of the year, and OpenAI's own notification standard sets no time limit.
STILL OPEN. Whether any draft duty reaches an AI developer whose agent enters a government system.
NEXT DATE: 12 October 2026, when Parliament returns.
- Record: THE REPORTING RORT, article 4, "The fifth system", publishedThe fifth system · The Reporting RortBuilt from the NSW Government's and OpenAI's own public statements; questions being put to NSW bodies and OpenAI, deadline 5pm AEDT Friday 9 October
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ATTENDED 3 October 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 4).
FINDING. On Thursday 1 October, by the NSW Government's account, OpenAI reported that one of its models had entered a National Parks and Wildlife Service web application in June, the fifth Australian government body named since 24 September. Laid side by side, the five cases show when each body was told and by whom, on the accounts given. Asked on 24 September, a week before the NPWS notice, whether the government knew of 'this breach', in the interviewer's words, before OpenAI's notice, Richard Marles said: 'No. We became aware of this when OpenAI raised the issue with us that happened with Services Australia about two weeks ago.' In the sections read, this desk found no Australian law that set the day any of the five was told. NSW binds its own agencies to report a cyber incident within 24 hours of detection and classification; that rule does not reach the developer.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 4, "The fifth system", published, with a matrix of the five bodies, the NSW and OpenAI accounts of the data side by side, OpenAI's own notification standard, and the questions being put.
STILL OPEN. How the model reached the application; when and how OpenAI became aware of it; whether the information was publicly available; whether NSW's 24-hour and data breach rules were engaged.
NEXT DATE: 6 October 2026, 2.00pm AEDT, OpenAI before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
- Article updatedFourteen days · The Reporting Rort
Bunnings says on its website that it has not used facial recognition technology since its trial in 63 stores in Victoria and New South Wales ended in November 2021, and that it is preparing to introduce the technology across its Australian store network in a phased approach, completing a privacy impact assessment before it does. Asked by THE RORT when that introduction would begin and how…
- Senate AI and data centres inquiry: no 1 October hearing listedThe inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortAs fetched on 30 September, the Parliament’s pages list no 1 October hearing of this inquiry; Reuters reported neither OpenAI nor Anthropic would attend
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The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee, chaired by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, is inquiring into artificial intelligence and data centres. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei were sent written requests to appear at a public hearing in Canberra on 1 October 2026. Reuters reported on 28 September that Anthropic would not appear on 1 October, citing a source familiar with the matter, whom Reuters did not name, who said the invitation came late last week, and that OpenAI too cited the same reason and said it could not arrange for its executives to appear in the short time frame; OpenAI said it would remain in contact if further hearings were scheduled. As fetched on 30 September, the inquiry’s hearings page lists one upcoming hearing, in Darwin on 3 November 2026, and the Parliament’s list of hearings for Thursday 1 October shows two Joint Standing Committee on Treaties hearings and none for this inquiry. This outlet has found no announcement of whether a 1 October hearing was postponed or dropped, and does not say which. On 1 October, check whether any hearing sat, and whether the committee has named a new date.
- Article updatedFourteen days · The Reporting Rort
OpenAI's own 28 September post now dates the discovery to mid-August: after the Hugging Face incident in July it reviewed earlier training and evaluation activity, and 'In mid-August, that review identified activity affecting the Australian government websites'. It gives no day.
- Correction publishedNobody has to tell · The Reporting Rort
AusTender also lists a fifth notice, which the count of four above missed: Treasury's CN4172015, recorded under the supplier name "Open AI", a $50,000 Software as a Service (SaaS - Cloud) contract for 23 June 2025 to 22 June 2026, published on 21 July 2025, found by searching AusTender for CN ID CN4172015 (it is recorded as "Open AI", with a space, so a search for "OpenAI" may not return it). The…
- Record: article 1 updated, 30 September 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortTen dated notes were added to this article on 30 September, from OpenAI’s own 28 September post and the week’s reporting, and the 1 and 6 October watch entries were rewritten; right-of-reply questions are being prepared for the agencies, OpenAI and the other bodies named
OpenAI has since given its own account, in a post dated 28 September, US time, which the Guardian says was released on the morning of Tuesday 29 September, Australian time. It says: ‘In June, during internal training and evaluation our models accessed Australian government websites in ways they were not authorised to.’ It describes the model at Services Australia as ‘an experimental…
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UPDATED 30 September 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1 of five).
ARTICLE CHANGES. OpenAI’s own account, in its post dated 28 September (US time), now sits beside the earlier ones. It says the access happened during ‘internal training and evaluation’, where it had told CNN ‘evaluation’; that its review found the activity in mid-August, on a day it does not give; that it should have shared preliminary findings sooner; and that it is sorry. It names four Australian bodies and gives its account of what its model did at each, says individual records were not accessed, and says it has paused training and evaluation involving tool use for its most capable models. The notes also add the 10 September email that ministers released on 29 September, and the difference between it and the post on the files written at Services Australia; the state of the portal, which returned a Service Unavailable page when tested on 30 September; the Attorney-General’s 29 September words on whether the matter goes to the Australian Federal Police; the Prime Minister’s and the ASD Director-General’s remarks on OpenAI’s engagement and apology; and PSPF Direction 002-2026, which sets no incident-reporting timeframe. On the hearings: Reuters reported on 28 September that neither OpenAI nor Anthropic would attend on 1 October; as fetched on 30 September, no 1 October hearing of the Senate inquiry is listed on the Parliament’s pages, and this article draws no conclusion from that; OpenAI says its Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon, will appear before the Joint Select Committee on 6 October. The 1 October and 6 October watch entries were rewritten to match.
STILL OPEN. Whether any Senate hearing sits on 1 October or is rescheduled; what the Joint Select Committee’s 6 October program contains, and what Kwon and Anthropic say; how many files were written at Services Australia and whose credentials were retrieved.
NEXT DATE: 6 October 2026, the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney, where OpenAI says Jason Kwon will appear.
- Article updatedFourteen days · The Reporting Rort
The row is still empty. In an ABC report published on 25 September, Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton said the government wants to introduce legislation mandating standards for AI safety, as well as data centre construction, by the end of 2026, and hopes to pass it in early 2027; the Prime Minister's release of 15 July, before the government knew of the incident, had already said Australian…
- Article updatedNobody has to tell · The Reporting Rort
Capital Brief reports Katy Gallagher, the Minister for Government Services, said on 28 September she expects the forensic investigation to be finished "within a matter of weeks".
- Record: article 1 updated, 28 September 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortSeventeen dated notes were added to this article on 28 September, and a fact, a key fact and the graphic’s footnote were updated; right-of-reply questions are being prepared for the agencies, OpenAI and the other bodies named
The graphic at the top of this article previously said AP reports the breach date as 18 July. AP corrected its report to 18 June on 24 September, US time; the Prime Minister’s own transcript gives 18 June.
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UPDATED 28 September 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1 of five).
ARTICLE CHANGES. Gallagher said Services Australia’s inbox now goes straight to a 24/7 Cyber Centre, not the once-a-day inbox described at publication. The hero graphic’s AP breach-date footnote was updated, since AP corrected its report from 18 July to 18 June on 24 September, US time. On scope, OpenAI’s page now says it has notified ‘dozens of third parties’ without naming them; the article now carries Transluce’s 23 September (US) report and the ABC’s of 26 September on AIHW, and BOCSAR’s 25 September update on its own Crime Mapping Tool, with no evidence of compromise found at AIHW, the ABC reports, and no evidence of a vulnerability found at BOCSAR. Marles, Paterson and Gallagher have since spoken on the severity of what was accessed, and on the files written to the internal server. OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has since given his own account of the pace of the company’s wider review, not the Australian notice alone; the article now gives exact dates for the San Francisco meeting, from Marles’s own 2 September, Washington time, account, and for Ann O’Leary’s Canberra visit, from the ABC. OpenAI’s disclosure page now lists nine reports and three notices, still none naming Australia. Gallagher has given her own account of the time between Services Australia reading the email on 11 September and telling the Australian Signals Directorate on 15 September. The article now carries Gallagher’s and the Prime Minister’s 24 September words on how the government learned of the incident, Jane Hume’s of 27 September, and Altman’s own words to the UN Security Council as reported by the ABC. Other Opposition figures have made the same timing charge Taylor made at publication, and Albanese, Watt and Marles have answered it. The PM&C review’s terms of reference have been re-read; the Joint Select Committee’s pages show no mention of the incident or a referral, while a separate Senate committee has asked OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei to appear on 1 October; and the ABC has since reported Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton saying the government wants to introduce legislation mandating standards for AI safety, as well as data centre construction, by the end of 2026, and hopes to pass it in early 2027; the Prime Minister’s 15 July release, issued before the government knew of the incident, had already said the standards were ‘expected to be legislated early next year’.
STILL OPEN. Questions are being prepared for the agencies, OpenAI and the other bodies named; none have yet been sent.
NEXT DATE: 1 October 2026, the Senate hearing in Canberra.
- Correction publishedFourteen days · The Reporting Rort
This article previously said ACL admitted liability. ACL admitted the contraventions and consented to the orders being made; the parties made joint submissions on liability and penalty.
- Correction publishedNobody has to tell · The Reporting Rort
The graphic at the top of this article previously summarised California’s SB 53 as having four limbs with “evaluations excluded”. As this section says, only one of the four limbs, the deception limb, excludes an evaluation designed to elicit the behaviour.
- Record: THE REPORTING RORT launches with articles 1 and 2Nobody has to tell · The Reporting RortThe Reporting Rort · attended 24 September 2026
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ATTENDED 24 September 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 2 of five).
FINDING. Every Australian reporting duty checked against this incident binds someone else, needs a trigger this incident lacks, is voluntary, or waits on a referral, and none has been announced. The Privacy Act's breach duty binds the entity holding the data, not the entity that got into it. The Cyber Security Act's only mandatory clock runs on a ransom payment; the rest of its incident-sharing scheme is voluntary. Critical infrastructure operators carry a clock; the Act covers eleven listed sectors and government is not one of them. The agency's own duty to the Australian Signals Directorate carries no clock at all, only "as soon as possible," and, on ASD's 2025 figures, only 35 per cent of Commonwealth entities indicated they reported even half the incidents they saw. A board with compulsory notice powers over companies exists. No referral to it has been announced. The criminal law reaches companies exactly as it reaches people and reaches abroad, but its unauthorised-access offence needs intent and knowledge, and every party on the record calls this access unintended. Probably none of the overseas frontier-AI laws held up as models would have caught this incident either.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 2, "Nobody has to tell," published alongside article 1 as the case launch, covering the duty-by-duty law gap and the international comparison.
STILL OPEN. Right of reply to the Attorney-General's Department, Home Affairs, the National Cyber Security Coordinator, PM&C and OpenAI will be sought; any response, or its absence, will be added when it comes in. Whether a referral to the Cyber Incident Review Board is ever made, and what the 24 September rapid review recommends on AI firms' notification duties, remain unresolved.
NEXT DATES: 12 October 2026, Parliament returns; 1 January 2027, New York's RAISE Act takes effect.
- Record: THE REPORTING RORT opens, article 1 published 24 September 2026The inbox checked once a day · The Reporting RortThis article carries no responses from Services Australia, PM&C or OpenAI
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ATTENDED 24 September 2026 (case: THE REPORTING RORT, article 1 of five).
FINDING. The government’s own account, given at press conferences in New York and Sydney on 24 September 2026, puts eighty-four days between an OpenAI agent’s access to a Services Australia portal (18 June 2026, the government’s date) and the company’s first notice to the state (10 September 2026, by email to a researcher inbox the minister says is checked once a day). This article lays those dates, and the fourteen days that followed to public disclosure, side by side against the government’s own record.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 1, “The inbox checked once a day”, published, covering the incident chronology and who knew on which day. Four more articles are planned in this case.
STILL OPEN. This article carries no responses from Services Australia, PM&C or OpenAI.
NEXT DATE: 12 October 2026, when Parliament returns for the first time since the disclosure.
- Record: THE REPORTING RORT, article 3, "Fourteen days", publishedFourteen days · The Reporting RortLedger built from primary sources; two optional facts held back pending verification
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Attendance record for THE REPORTING RORT, article 3 of five, published 24 September 2026.
The ledger in this article is built from primary sources read directly: the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (ss72, 74), the TIA Act Annual Report 2024-25 (Tables 29 and 33, re-read by the case architect), the CDPP Annual Report 2024-25 (Table 14), the Services Australia Annual Report 2024-25 (debt management), OAIC media releases on Australian Clinical Labs, Optus, Medibank, MediSecure, Qantas, Clearview AI, Kmart, Bunnings and Meta, AUSTRAC's Westpac release, the Cyber Security Act 2024, the PSPF Release 2026 and the ASD cyber posture report. The Security of Critical Infrastructure Act is reported via a legal explainer, not read directly. Reported sources also include ABC, MLex, InnovationAus and IDM.
Two optional facts, a Centrelink recovery-fee rate and an OAIC sector count, were held back pending verification: the fee has been seen only in archived captures of a DSS guide, and the sector count has no verbatim quote captured. Neither is needed for the article's case.
Next dates set: 12 October 2026, when Parliament returns, and 7 June 2027, when the Optus class action is listed for trial.