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ESSENTIALS

— OpenAI to wade back into AgentGate controversy

— Notify early, notify often — a shift to legislative fixes for rogue AI

— Trump rejection of ceasefire puts political heat back on at the petrol bowser

DRIVING THE DAY

OPEN AI TO BREAK SILENCE

OpenAI is expected to release a statement first-thing Monday that could specify who will attend an inquiry. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said CEO Sam Altman accepted the incident was not good enough — is the next step an apology?

FRONTIER POLITICS — AI COMPANIES HAVE A CONTROL PROBLEM: OpenAI, Anthropic and security researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents — not four, not dozens — in which their frontier artificial intelligence models took problematic steps beyond their instructions, Axios reported. That includes meddling in U.S. government department systems, according to The New York Times.

This poses the question: What control do the tech companies actually have?

A self-regulated safety group composed of Google, OpenAI and Anthropic is in the works. Stanford University professor Condoleezza Rice may chair. And it is tentatively known as the Standards Authority for Frontier AI, or SAFA, The Information reported.

SANDBOX ESCAPE: OpenAI revealed over the weekend it’s paused model training after an incident Sept. 20 in which an agent being tested in a sandbox broke out, gaining access to the internet. Tomek Korbak, technical staff from OpenAI safety, posted on X that this news was “easy to miss.” (It is easy to miss if it’s not your CEO delivering the news, yes.)

AI SUMMIT TUESDAY: U.S. President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson will meet tech CEOs on Sept. 29 (U.S. time).

AGENTGATE — AUSTRALIA’S NEXT STEPS

Greens Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs one of parliament’s AI inquiries, is inviting Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei to appear Thursday. Altman could expect a grilling about what he knew when — but is not obliged to appear (only Australia-based witnesses are). We’ve reached out to OpenAI to ask if Altman will attend and if not, who will front.

Leaving a White House dinner, Altman dodged four questions from Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Koziol, including whether he would apologize to Australians.

AUSTRALIA IS NOT READY FOR WHAT’S COMING — FIXING CYBER DEFENSES

If Friday’s debate was all about OpenAI losing control, and whether Albanese wasted time telling us, the second round of analysis is about Australia’s cyber defenses and the legal liability for breaches.

Playbook’s Ryan Heath spoke to a leading data breach expert, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, about the cybersecurity world we are heading into.

“In the way that drones have revolutionized warfare, agents will revolutionize cybercrime,” they said.

“We need to get used to a world where there is no cybersecurity, or where we pay a lot more to build up our defenses. That, or we return to paper-based systems for some things,” they added.

GET YOUR POPCORN! Just as ministers were starting to learn about OpenAI’s rogue agents, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit announced an inquiry into Commonwealth entities’ approach to cybersecurity and IT controls.

Defence Minister Richard Marles told News24 on Sunday that he “took comfort” that tech chief executives told the U.N. they accept the need for guardrails and safeguards.

He shouldn’t take any comfort — including because some of the systems he’s in charge of aren’t ready.

Most Australian government departments “meet only around half of the requirements” in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework and Australian Signals Directorate Essential 8 assessment, per our data expert source. We’re going the hear some fascinating Parliament evidence about that.

SIT DOWN FOR THIS ONE, AND DON’T SPIT OUT YOUR COFFEE: With the exception of what ASD runs, no one’s ready for autonomous agents. Here’s our data breach expert again:

“Imagine you are living in a nice house in the countryside. You have a fence, maybe it’s electrified and you lock your house, and you’ve never been robbed by anyone, so you feel safe. Well, now, the potential robbers are machines that operate 24/7. So, you don’t have a house anymore, you just have a bunch of things laid out on the field for every machine to rummage through. A very small number of people have some really important stuff is in a safe, or maybe it’s just a storage shed.

“Everything else is laid out like a garage sale: That’s the data of the government and corporations and universities. And even if we rebuild everything to the newest standards, we might find that new agents can just bomb the house from above, instead of robbing you in the field.”

COALITION’S CYBER DEFENSE QUESTIONS

Never waste a crisis: The Coalition calls our cyber defense “woefully inadequate.”

“The only reason we knew about this breach of the Medicare data system is because OpenAI told us there was a breach. If they hadn’t told us there was a breach, would we have known about it at all?” Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume said on ABC’s “Insiders.”

Hume noted the auditor-general raised concerns about Services Australia’s cyber defenses two years ago. Media love writing up these reports (favorite adjective: scathing) when it involves outright corruption or pork-barrelling, but they’re a much harder sell when they involve a fifth-risk — a term financial journalist Michael Lewis popularized to describe long-term poor management that eventually results in a dramatic negative outcome.

No explosion this time: AI didn’t get any nuclear codes or sensitive patient data. Phew. That’s why the OpenAI incident has been described by Marles as a warning, benign and relatively minor. The Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson agreed on “Sunday Agenda” it is a “free warning.” Or to put it another way: Australia wasn’t wearing any underpants, but nobody saw our private parts.

Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Jonathon Duniam, said the incident raised the broader question of “what actions have been taken to bolster the cyber security of all government departments to protect the data of Australians?”

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:

Cyber defenses: How much are we willing to spend? What did Open AI’s Australia team know, and when?

OpenAi’s head of policy in Australia, Brent Thomas, is a personal friend of New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Energy Minister Chris Bowen. He knows how to reach government officials. But he can’t inform people if he doesn’t know.

WOULD PROPOSED PRIVACY ACT CHANGES IMPROVE THE SITUATION?

TL;DR: Not much, but maybe.

Australia does not have a universal cyber-incident disclosure law, and obligations depend on what was compromised, who holds it and what sector it occurred in.

The Privacy Act requires organizations to assess a suspected breach, generally within 30 days, with prompt notification thereafter if personal information was compromised.

Under the Cyber Security Act of 2024, certain businesses must report ransomware or cyber-extortion payments to the Commonwealth within 72 hours.

The penalties for breaking the law are minor: A maximum of $50 million for repeated failures, and in some instances, a maximum of $19,800 (Google makes that revenue every 1.5 seconds).

Proposed 2026 reforms would have a more explicit 72-hour notification obligation, affected individuals would need to be notified immediately thereafter and companies would need to do more preparation against attacks.

However, none of that would have required Services Australia to publicly disclose the Medicare incident because personal information was not compromised.

THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW — AI POLICY RESEARCHER JANET EGAN

Egan is director of AI policy at the Institute for Progress, a think tank based in Washington, after a public service career that included a stint as director in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

POLITICO’s Finn McHugh spoke to Egan on Friday, one day after revelations OpenAI autonomous agents had gained unauthorized access to nonpublic Medicare statistical data.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Some want Australia to develop its own sovereign capabilities from scratch. How feasible is that?

I don’t think it is feasible. Other models we’ve seen that call themselves sovereign AI are often just built off a Chinese open-source model, then further refined and fine-tuned. The sheer scale of upfront costs needed makes this a really high barrier to entry. There’s every chance that countries like Australia, if they try, could throw away a bunch of money and still end up with a model that is not at the frontier.

What other options does Australia have?

Australia actually has a good hand in hosting frontier training compute. We’re looking at a future where a lot of the profits flood into these major AI companies, and there’s a handful in just two countries.

If you can insert Australia as part of the supply chain of frontier AI, you have an ability to understand the trajectory of the technology, shape the trajectory and governance — and also capture some gains. If there’s widespread labor force disruption, you need to have a tax base and government that can support its citizens through change.

On copyright laws: What do you think Australia’s most effective approach would be?

There must be a way that supports both parties, allowing AI training and also benefiting Australian creatives, who currently get nothing. AI companies seem license sensitive but not price sensitive. Australia could extract a very large amount of value by requiring them to pay into a central fund that ensures Australian creatives are better off.

AI companies are calling to be regulated. Is that fear motivated by liability if their technology does something catastrophic?

AI needs to avoid “the Chernobyl moment.” Capability seems to be outstripping our ability to control them. I’ve talked to people in the AI companies, and it does seem they are genuinely scared.

Is there a 10% chance this technology will kill all humans by the end of the decade, as one ex-employee estimates?

I do not think this is marketing hype. But then it’s very hard, when people think it’s marketing hype, to say: “No, I’ve had hour-long conversations with these people three years ago when they were already warning about this.” From my perspective and from where I sit in D.C., people hold this view.

Read the full interview.

HOW MEDIA OUTLETS COVER AI AND DATA CENTERS

InnovationAus has teamed up with Isentia to map the Australian media’s coverage of AI and data centers over the last year. Read the full report.

An imported picture: Most news Australians read about AI focuses on developments overseas (66%) and quote foreign AI industry voices (88%).

Trust in government, not tech bros: Most Australian reporting is strongly positive toward the institutions responding to AI (53%), and just one in five are critical.

Unequal benefits: When coverage focuses on the benefits, it overwhelmingly cites business (71%). When it focuses on the costs, it mostly falls on the workers (55%).

LABOR’S DIGITAL DUTY OF CARE HAS A MESSAGING PROBLEM

The Coalition will continue its campaign that the Albanese government has not been upfront about the impact its digital duty of care will have on what content social media users can see.

Perfect example or straw man? Communications Minister Anika Wells called AgentGate the “perfect example” to justify duty of care legislation because it illustrates the perils of “an unregulated industry where big tech clearly feels that they can do whatever they like.”

But the two proposals and legislation are separate — and it’s not clear anyone watching Wells’ press conference would have understood that.

This follows a barney about whether or not the duty of care restricts free speech. The Coalition, One Nation and the U.S. Embassy say it does; Labor says it doesn’t.

TWO THINGS POSSIBLE AT ONCE: On Friday, Albanese told News24 the government was “not at all” trying to stifle political communication. “This is the opposite of the government having power, it’s about giving Australians power … to determine what they receive on their devices,” he said.

It does do that.

But the exposure draft bill also contains a power for the minister to determine what material or conduct on social media “may cause serious harm” — so it clearly does empower the government to set the limits of what can be shown.

Come amend my bill: Albanese claimed “the minister doesn’t have any power because it’s a disallowable instrument,” meaning Parliament can tear it up. He then added, “if you wanted to remove that, I’m very relaxed about that, as is Anika Wells.”

So Albanese claimed a power exercised by a minister is not a ministerial power then conceded it may need to come out.

Labor’s case would be stronger if: It defended everything in the bill, not just the easy stuff (opting out of a personalized algorithm) and not separate albeit related proposals (compulsory notification for AI breaches).

Still no word on: How the Coalition would amend the bill.

BY THE NUMBERS

1: Number of planes Trump is blocking CNN from traveling on — Air Force One — just days after a judge ordered CNN reporters, alongside POLITICO and MS NOW reporters, back into the White House.

52: Percentage of Queensland voters who nominate Pauline Hanson as preferred prime minister.

30,000: Number of asylum seekers issued Resolution of Status visas.

CANBERRA MEETS WORLD

I-RAN INTO FUEL PROBLEMS: Trump has rejected Tehran’s offer for a seven-day ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting further anxiety about fuel prices. Catch up on that story with our colleague Nette Nöstlinger.

Is another fuel excise cut incoming? “We’re not considering that,” Marles told News24 on Sunday. The government is keen to talk about other cost of living measures, not this. Halving the fuel excise is very, very pricey — $2.5 billion for just three months.

Yes, but: While Marles’ language might seem categorical, it’s exactly the same used by Treasurer Jim Chalmers three weeks before he halved the excise in March.

STATE OF THE NATION

ANZAC NIMBYS, ARMCHAIR GENERALS AND COMMANDER-IN-CABERNET

The Commonwealth Defence Department’s $3 billion dollar land sell-off is increasingly politically friendless, with Minns coming out last month against the sale of Victoria Barracks, Sydney.

Marles isn’t having it. On News24’s “Sunday Agenda,” Marles argued that “every dollar that Defence spends on the heritage of the Victoria Barracks, Sydney is in competition with a dollar that we would spend on Defence capability, on making sure we’re giving our diggers the best protection possible to keep them safe — and that’s my first priority.”

“It is not my priority for Defence to be a heritage organisation. It’s not my priority to see Defence manage the oldest wine cellar in Australia. … There are a few former generals who liked hanging out there, who are lamenting this,” he added.

Hanging out — makes it sound like the HQ of a tech startup, all beanbags and ping pong tables. Live ammunition fired, this is not a drill!

“THE PUBLIC DO NOT TRUST COPS TO INVESTIGATE COPS”: The Australian Federal Police revealed that of 1,213 allegations of misconduct against police from July 2021 to June 2026, more than half (643) were finalized through a broad discretion by the AFP to decide against taking further action.

“We need a better system”: That data is contained in answers to Independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe’s inquiry into racism toward First Nations people. Thorpe said the figures are “staggering” and “show why we need an independent body to investigate police misconduct and end the protection racket. The public do not trust cops to investigate cops.”

The Commonwealth Ombudsman criticized the AFP in 2025 for deciding not to investigate complaints before confirming the existence of relevant evidence.

An AFP spokesperson disagreed with the criticism and told POLITICO it “takes all matters relating to the conduct of AFP members and employees, including allegations of corruption, seriously,” pointing to structural separation of its professional standards unit within the AFP.

PARTY ROOM

NAUGHTY GARY! LABOR STAFF TOLD TO REPAY $12,000 IN HIRE CAR CHARGES: Veteran staffer Cameron Amos charged 27 trips outside of Parliament’s travel expenses rules— including one car hire that lasted 29 days, James Massola reported. Other Senators are furious that his boss, Sen. Tammy Tyrrell, has him at all (she has more advisers than party leader Sen. Pauline Hanson).

AI HACKS ITS WAY INTO… PARLIAMENT SPEECHES: According to an Economist analysis of data over the past year, Australian members of Parliament and senators are either the most likely to use AI to create speeches, or they simply sound like ChatGPT.

Survey: Are you an MP or Senator, or a staffer, who’s drafted Parliament speeches with AI? We’d love to know how you incorporate it into the drafting process. Reach out at: canberraplaybook@politico.com.

LIBERAL BRAIN TRUSS: The U.K.’s shortest-serving prime minister, Liz Truss, will dole out advice on rebuilding center-right parties to Liberal loyalists next month, Max Aitchison and Will Glasgow report for The Australian. It’ll cost just $1,500 to watch Truss, who lasted 49 days in the job, sit down for a chat with former PM and new Liberal Party President Tony Abbott. Bargain!

EMBASSY ROW

BRAT’S IN THE RANKS: The U.S. ambassador-designate, Dave Brat, has landed in Canberra and is looking forward to “building on the incredible alliance with Australia” that has been “our closest friend and ally for generations.” Shhh! Don’t tell anyone in London that we have a more special relationship.

Once he’s credentialed, Brat will be able to put his name to Washington’s barbs whenever Canberra attempts to regulate big tech.

AROUND THE PLAYBOOKS

PARIS — TAKEAWAYS FROM OUR FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS: Find out why one potential president really doesn’t trust Germany in this piece by our colleague, Marion Solletty.

LONDON — HOW TO WATCH THE U.K. LABOUR CONFERENCE LIKE A PRO: New British PM Andy Burnham’s mantra — “hope again” — is about to smash into all kinds of reality, writes U.K. political editor Dan Bloom.

AGENDA ASSISTANT

RATE DECISION IMMINENT: Governor Michele Bullock leads a two-day Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting that experts believe will end in another rate hike. Decision Tuesday.

CRITICAL MINERALS: A House committee on maintaining social license for critical minerals projects meets in Brisbane from 9 a.m. this morning. The Queensland government, which wants $300 million from the Commonwealth for critical minerals projects, is first up.

LOCAL CANBERRA

WHY HAVE 460 CANBERRA STREETLIGHTS BEEN BROKEN FOR 90 DAYS? Region’s Jarryd Rowley has an explanation for you here.

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS! Canberra Writers Festival is running Oct. 15-18 with more than 100 authors and dozens of conversations that examine power, technology, trust and democracy in the city where it all happens.

Top names include David Speers, Siang Lu, Niki Savva, Malcolm Knox, Amy Remeikis, Anna Goldsworthy, John Morrissey, Matt Bevan, George Megalogenis and Durkhanai Ayubi.

MOVES AND APPOINTMENTS

HIRED: Dr. Osamu Nishiwaki has joined the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as a nonresident senior fellow, examining Australia-Japan economic security and defense.

Rebecca Roberts is the new chief people and technology officer at St. Vincent’s Health Australia.

Former MP Wyatt Roy is now a senior adviser to Queensland startup Compono, based out of Saudi Arabia.

BIRTHDAYS

Former foreign minister and N.S.W. Premier Bob Carr, N.S.W. Labor MP Jason Li, former Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina, former Czech President Miloš Zeman.

Today is also the King’s Birthday public holiday for our readers in Western Australia.

Belated wishes: For Karlis Salna, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy’s media adviser, who celebrated Sunday, and The Squiz co-founder Kate Watson, who celebrated Friday!

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‘Drones have revolutionized warfare, agents will revolutionize cybercrime’