Australia politics live news: opinions divided on legacy of Liberal ‘warrior’ Peter Reith; Sri Lanka cricketers face investigation

Welcome to the Wednesday parliament sitting, where estimates will continue to mean everyone inside the parliament is annoyed about something.

It’s been that sort of week.

Because this government is still relatively new, estimates has been a mix of things the last government did and changes this government has made since taking over the treasury reins.

So both opposition and government senators are asking the department officials targeted questions and then doing what they can to make those answers the narrative of the day.

Meanwhile in the house, the government is pushing the last bits of the legislation it wants to get passed by the end of the year, which has meant we are also talking IR, respect at work and the national anti-corruption commission.

It means that the final two weeks are going to be an absolute mess as everyone tries to stick to the plan, with the senate, as always, the place to watch.

But first we have to get through hump day.

The Medibank data hack will be one of the big issues of the day, with reports (see below) that some data stolen from the health insurer has been posted, after Medibank refused to pay a ransom (a position supported by the Australian government).

And of course, the cost of living and particularly energy prices will continue to dominate the political conversation – ahead of Chris Bowen leaving for Cop27.

Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst, Josh Butler and Paul Karp will be all across what is happening in the parliament, and you have me, Amy Remeikis for the majority of the day on the blog.

I am on my fourth coffee and given its Wednesday, I made the sensible choice and had a piece of banana cake for breakfast.

Ready?

Let’s get into it

A ransomware group has begun posting client data apparently stolen from Australia’s largest health insurer on the dark web, AAP reports.

Hundreds of names, addresses, birthdates and Medicare details were being posted under “good-list” and “naughty-list” on a blog belonging to the group.

The hackers had demanded a ransom to stop them from releasing the data, but Medibank earlier this week said it would not pay it because it would encourage further crime.

Shortly after midnight, the group posted the first lists.

“Looking back that data is stored not very understandable format (table dumps) we’ll take some time to sort it out,” they said in the early hours of Wednesday.

“We’ll continue posting data partially, need some time to do it pretty.”

The hackers also appeared to have revealed screenshots of private messages recently exchanged between themselves and Medibank representatives.

Medibank has previously confirmed almost 500,000 health claims were stolen by the hackers, along with personal information, when the unnamed group hacked into its system weeks ago.

Some 9.7 million current and former customers have been affected.

No credit card or banking details were accessed.

On Tuesday, the ransomware group posted to its blog that “data will be publish (sic) in 24 hours”.

“P.S. I recommend to sell (sic) medibank stocks.”

Medibank apologised again to clients past and present on Tuesday. It advised customers to be alert for any phishing scams via phone, post or email.

“We knew the publication of data online by the criminal could be a possibility but the criminal’s threat is still a distressing development for our customers,” CEO David Koczkar said on Tuesday.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said Medibank’s decision not to pay a ransom to cyber criminals was in line with government advice.

Hi, Martin Farrer here. Welcome to our live blog. Amy Remeikis will be here soon to start the day’s politics coverage, but let’s get the ball rolling with some of the main news stories this morning.

Former prime minister John Howard has led tributes to his “great friend” Peter Reith, who has died at the age of 72. Reith was deputy leader of the Liberal party in the Howard era and served as minister for industrial relations and defence among others. But while Liberal politicians paid tribute to his “conviction” style of politics, others have remembered his role in the notorious “children overboard” claims about asylum seekers during the 2001 election campaign and his fight against dock workers in 1998.

Melissa Davey, our medical editor, has an exclusive story this morning about how the Victorian government sent Covid contact tracing data to the national crime authority for potential use by the data mining firm Palantir. Experts said the move was “dubious” and “outrageous”.

Senate estimates last night revealed more detail about Scott Morrison’s secret ministerial portfolios. Meghan Quinn, secretary of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, told a hearing that officials from Morrison’s department asked their counterparts in the industry department to provide a briefing to the prime minister on the Pep-11 gas project in December 2021, because Morrison had designated himself the decision-maker. Asked whether then resources minister Keith Pitt had received the same briefing, Quinn said: “I don’t believe so.”

Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka will appear in court in Sydney today over the alleged sexual assault of a woman. More questions about the conduct of the squad have emerged overnight after Sri Lanka Cricket launched an investigation into “various alleged incidents” involving its players in Australia during the T20 World Cup.