The Weekly Cybers #9
It’s many small items this week, plus a podcast about international cyber law and things.
Receiving this twice? That’s because this one fixes the broken link in the first bullet-point item. Note to self: Check all the links before sending, and don’t do it late at night. — Stilgherrian
Welcome
For some reason it’s just a lot of small items this week. I suppose I could’ve done a backgrounder on the new Administrative Review Tribunal, replacing the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but I’ll save that for next week after the parliamentary debate.
Meanwhile, a reminder: This is not specifically a cyber security newsletter. It’s about Australia, government, and all the associated digitals and cybers. For cybersecurity news I can thoroughly recommend Risky Biz News.
Also in the news
The inquiry into various failed IT projects has been extended to cover the public service IT skills shortage. I’m becoming more and more interested in what this inquiry might uncover. Submissions close 12 April.
Revealed: the secret algorithm that controls the lives of Serco’s immigration detainees.
80% of Australians think AI risk is a global priority. The government needs to step up.
Australia’s chief scientist Dr Cathy Foley has put forward a world-first open access model through which all Australians would have access to research papers for free.
The Attorney-General’s Department has launched an inquiry into doxxing and related privacy law reforms. Submissions close 28 March. The Guardian has a backgrounder.
Treasury has released draft legislation to regulate Buy Now Pay Later schemes (BNPL), along with the usual explanatory documents. Submissions close 9 April.
We have the advisory report on the Defence Amendment (Safeguarding Australia’s Military Secrets) Bill 2023. It’s slightly outside the remit of this newsletter but it maybe of interest. The bill is scheduled for debate in the Reps this coming week.
CORRECTION: Public servants were given the chance to grill the public service commissioner and the assistant minister anonymously, and they had many questions about the uncompetitive pay for government IT workers and why government IT projects keep failing. (I posted this last week but the link was broken.)
International cyber law in a podcast
This week my somewhat erratic podcast for grown-ups The 9pm Edict looked at making the internet more resilient, diplomacy during the covid times, and Australia’s relatively competent approach to regulating artificial intelligence.
My special guest was Professor Johanna Weaver, former cyber diplomat, and director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at ANU. She has her own podcast too, Tech Mirror: Reflecting on technology and society.
Look for The 9pm Edict in your podcast app of choice, or go to The 9pm International Cyber Law without Vodka with Professor Johanna Weaver.
Why not forward this email to a friend?
Well, why not? The more people this reaches, the more inspired I am do keep doing it.
Elsewhere
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has called for public ownership of essential digital services. “Varoufakis said we are entering a ‘technofeudalist’ economic paradigm, where money and power are concentrated in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Gilded Age,” reports The Mandarin. ABC iView has his full address to the National Press Club.
“A joint police operation targeting misuse of personal information after high-profile Australian hacks has linked ‘over 11,000 cybercrime incidents’ to the Medibank data breach,” reports iTnews.
Also from iTnews, “A NSW government survey has uncovered the presence of over 275 automated decision-making tools (ADMs), raising questions about how the tools are administered and their usage is disclosed.”
“The world’s first legislative regime on the use and development of AI has passed its final hurdle in the European Parliament, three months after it received provisional agreement,” reports InnovationAus.com.
Also, “Search engines like Google and Bing will face penalties or injunctions for failing to take action against access to illegal and harmful content from Tuesday [12 March] with the arrival of the sixth online safety industry code.”
The UK’s High Court has ruled that Australian Craig Wright is not Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
What’s next?
Parliament will return this coming Monday 18 March for two weeks of sittings.
We already have the draft legislative programs for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
One big item in the Reps this week is the resumption of debate on the new Administrative Review Tribunal, which will replace the long-standing Administrative Appeals Tribunal. For an overview of the outstanding issues you might like to check the report from the inquiry into the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 and its close friend, the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023.
That said, you’d have to be a serious policy wonk to go down that rabbit-hole.
The Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-siphoning) Bill 2023, so we may get those new rules for how Smart TVs’ menus are arranged to better suit the free-to-air broadcasters.
On Monday we should see the report from the inquiry into the excitingly-named Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards and Other Measures) Bill 2023 [Provisions].
On Wednesday there’s yet another hearing in the ongoing inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence in the Australian education system, this time in Canberra.
And that's it for this week.
Any questions or comments? Just reply to this email. Cheers.
The Weekly Cybers is a personal look at what the Australian government has been saying and doing in the digital and cyber realms, on various adjacent topics, and whatever else interests me, Stilgherrian, published every Friday afternoon (nearly).
If I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow, please let me know.
If you find this newsletter useful, please consider throwing a tip into the tip jar.
This is not specifically a cyber *security* newsletter. For that that I recommend Risky Biz News and Cyber Daily, among others.