The minister responsible for Australia's national disability insurance scheme has vowed to usher in a new era for participants, declaring many no longer trust the program which was meant to improve their lives. Bill Shorten says the NDIS in its current form has lost its way.
Optus has finally handed over data to Services Australia almost a fortnight after a massive data breach was revealed and the government requested the information. The government agency is now assessing the data to see what can be drawn from it. Optus has revised its estimates of affected customers to 50,000 with compromised Medicare records, and 150,000 impacted passports.
The Bureau of Meteorology says locals in flood-prone areas will need to be ready to respond quickly in the event that heavy rainfall arrives in their region. The Bureau's Jonathon How says storms are likely to hit parts of western Queensland, western New South Wales and northwest Victoria today [[Tue 4 Oct]], and that already soaked catchments may respond quickly to further rainfall. He says tomorrow will be the first predicted 'peak day' for heavy rain.
The International Monetary Fund is considering a request from Ukraine for emergency funding as Russia's war against the country continues. Ukraine is asking for $1.3 billion, which it is understood the I-M-F is open to providing.
Sweden has sent a team to investigate the site of a Russian gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea amid concerns that its rupture last week was the result of sabotage. Sweden's investigative authority says it has designated the area as a crime scene, with an exclusion zone of five nautical miles now being applied around the leaks. A diving vessel has been sent to check it out. The inquiry is part of a wider European investigation into what caused three pipelines in the Nord Stream network to burst near Swedish and Danish waters.
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