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Key posts
- Cost of an average doctor’s appointment up $10 in one year: GPs
- ‘Third party’ that brought down Optus network revealed
- Evidence Hamas using Al-Shifa hospital for military actions: White House
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Marles responds to report showing spike in cybercrime
Defence Minister Richard Marles says there’s been more interest from state actors in Australia’s critical infrastructure as the government works to strengthen its cybersecurity.
His comments come after the Australian Signals Directorate released its annual Cyber Threat Report, which found it received 94,000 reports of cybercrime over the last year, 23 per cent more than the year before.
“Across the board in terms of defending our country with … defences but also making sure that we are a more resilient community that our cyber public health is in good shape, this becomes a pressing priority,” Marles said on ABC News Breakfast.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
He was asked whether the government believed that China was one of the main culprits, which was outlined in the report.
“There are a number of state actors out there which have also at times engaged in activity,” Marles told the program.
“So what we’re making sure that we do is that we are as robust as we can be in terms of the defence of our own critical infrastructure.”
The minister said the Albanese government was investing $10 billion over 10 years in the Australian Signals Directorate, which would effectively double its size.
“It is a huge uplift in our cyber capability and our cyber defence.”
Marles said the relationship with China was complex, and the government had always made that point.
“It’s right to be investing in that relationship. But China has been a source of security, anxiety, for our country, and we prepare for that as well.”
with AAP
Cost of an average doctor’s appointment up $10 in one year: GPs
Doctors say they have increased their average fee for a standard consultation from $64 to just under $75 in 12 months as they face pressure from rising costs, adding to the challenge facing Health Minister Mark Butler as he tries to resuscitate Medicare.
In the same year the Albanese government pledged to overhaul the health system and started rolling out changes to make it easier to see a doctor, the proportion of GPs who said they bulk billed all their patients was halved from 24 to 12 per cent.
GPs are charging an average of $10 more for a standard appointment than they were last year.
The snapshot from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ yearly survey of doctors maps an accelerated deterioration in the affordability of primary care despite Labor’s focus on reform.
The annual report has criticised the “ongoing dysfunction in the health system” and cited a significant jump in both patients’ financial issues and GP workloads and stress since last year.
Learn more about the report here.
‘Third party’ that brought down Optus network revealed
Returning to Australia, the unnamed “international peering network” that Optus said had contributed to its 16-hour-long network meltdown last week was its Singaporean parent company Singtel.
It can also be revealed a key executive, who left Canadian telco Rogers Communications less than two weeks after it last year suffered an almost identical outage to Optus, is now working for Singtel.
Customers were left in the dark after Optus experienced an outage across the entire country last week.Credit: Louie Douvis
Jorge Fernandes left Rogers in July 2022 and joined Singtel in June this year as its chief technology officer – a role he held at Rogers for more than four years. Fernandes has been contacted for comment and this masthead does not suggest he was responsible for last Wednesday’s outage.
Both Optus and Singtel were approached for comment. Optus declined to respond.
The Rogers outage affected 12 million users, with around 25 per cent of Canada losing internet connectivity for about 15 hours.
Here’s the full story about the outage.
Evidence Hamas using Al-Shifa hospital for military actions: White House
The White House has said it has intelligence that Hamas was using Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital to run its military operations, and probably to store weapons, saying those actions constituted a war crime.
“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control mode” and probably to store weapons, national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli strike.Credit: AP
“That is a war crime.”
He said those actions by the Palestinian militant group did not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians.
Reuters
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and thanks for your company.
It’s Wednesday, November 15. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
- The unnamed “international peering network” that Optus said had contributed to its 16-hour-long network meltdown last week was its Singaporean parent company Singtel, it can be revealed.
- Doctors say they have increased their average fee for a standard consultation from $64 to just under $75 in 12 months as they face pressure from rising costs.
- Hardware chain Bunnings will stop selling engineered stone at the end of the year, in a win for unions and health experts.
- Social and economic pressures are driving Australians apart and fuelling concerns about migration after the pandemic, with 33 per cent of people worried the migrant intake is too high.
- A classified inquiry by an ex-spy chief provided a scathing assessment of how Australia’s Department of Home Affairs managed taxpayer dollars for the offshore asylum seeker processing system.
- Large industrial facilities are being asked to reduce electricity usage over summer as officials ready for a long and hot season.
- Overseas, former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman lashed out at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a day after he fired her saying his approach was “uncertain, weak” and lacked leadership qualities.
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