From Optus’ data breach to Kings Counsel changes, we bring you a collation of key updates for September 2022.
The federal government has demanded Optus pay for new passports
Following the Optus data breach, a news report released over 10000 customer records online by an alleged Optus hacker. Recently, Optus revealed that the fraud involved around 15000 Medicare records. Following this, the government is working with financial regulators to replace these Medicare numbers.
While the foreign minister, Penny Wong, stated there is “no justification” for victims to foot the bill for replacing their documents, the Prime Minister indicated that Optus should pay for new passports for affected victims.
Anthony Albanese commented on the cost cover for new passports, “We believe that Optus should pay, not taxpayers”.
Australia’s inflation rate eases slightly to 6.8% in August thanks to modest fuel price rises
Consumer prices are showing an increasing trend over the past months in Australia. In July 2022, inflation touched a soaring high of 7%, which seems to have eased slightly in August 2022.
Australian Statistician, David Gruen, links the slight dip to the decrease in fuel prices. “The slight fall in the annual inflation rate from July to August was mainly due to a decrease in prices for automotive fuel,” said Gruen.
On the contrary, Gareth Aird, the head of economics at CBA, is optimistic that inflation should ease considerably in 2023, as supply disruptions would ease to an extent by then.
RBA reveals September 2022 cash rate
After the increase in interest rates for four consecutive months, RBA interest rates are on the rise again.
In September 2022, RBA decided to increase the cash rate by 50 basis points to 2.35 per cent. Legal Home Loans director of sales Cullen Haynes said that this cash rate increase is the fourth significant increase in a row, and he pondered on what subsequent increases are to unfold this year.
Queen’s counsel to become King’s counsel
Following the succession of Charles III as the new monarch, the Queen’s counsel will now go by King’s counsel.
Following the Queen’s passing, Australian Bar Association president Matt Collins (now KC) conferred that the change in silks’ post nominal could legally happen immediately.
Previously before 1901, Silks had to apply for an extension of their titles on changing monarchs. However, that rule has been overturned for over a century, making the process automatic.
AI is creeping into the world’s courts. Should we be concerned?
Visualise an AI bot examining your evidence instead of a human; strange, isn’t it? Regardless, AI is creeping its way into the courtrooms.
The Estonian Ministry of Justice says it will use ‘AI-judges’ to clear a backlog of cases. They intend to give human judges more time to deal with more complex disputes.
However, numerous concerns are being raised about AI usage in courts. One of the concerns was that the secret nature of AI systems meant that judges and parties could be unaware of how decisions were generated. Another concern is that the software could have incredible difficulty working with people from non-English speaking backgrounds.
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