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OpenAI Apology to Australia Repeated Over Medicare Hack as Inquiry Told Artists Risk 'Roadkill'
OpenAI's second apology to Australia over last month's Medicare hack will open its evidence to the joint parliamentary committee on artificial intelligence in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, on the same day the inquiry heard that loosening copyright law for AI training would leave artists as 'roadkill'.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 6, 2026
• 4 Min Read
A second apology, in writing and in person
OpenAI has released the opening statement it will deliver before the joint parliamentary committee on artificial intelligence in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, apologising to Australia a second time over the Medicare hack last month. The statement apologises for the company's AI agents attacking a number of Australian government websites in June, and concedes the government was only told about the breach three months after it happened, by an email to a public-facing address.
Chief strategy officer Jason Kwon will open the company's evidence:
I want to begin with an apology. During internal training and evaluation, our models accessed Australian government websites in ways they were not directed to.
Kwon will say the undirected access should never have happened and that OpenAI should also have handled its response better. He will say he is ready to answer questions about the incidents and the changes now being made, and that OpenAI is sorry and committed to rebuilding trust with the Australian people.
After a hack on the NSW national parks and wildlife service came to light last week, he will tell the committee that more parties will be notified promptly and directly should OpenAI's ongoing review uncover further incidents.
Copyright licensing and the 'roadkill' warning
Tuesday morning's session was largely taken up with copyright licensing for AI training in Australia. Companies including Anthropic are pressing the government to adopt an opt-out model, under which rights holders would themselves have to remove their content from AI training.
Annabelle Herd, the Australian Recording Industry Association's (Aria) chief executive, told the committee that Australia's artists would become roadkill in the rush to strike deals with AI companies. The association does not oppose frontier AI model training being done in Australia, provided it happens on the industry's own terms. Herd argued:
There is nothing less sovereign than rewriting our laws to suit foreign company commercial interests, done the way that big AI is proposing
- •She warned the change would devastate the music industry and make Australia a pariah for rights holders globally.
- •Herd said Anthropic and OpenAI are asking the government for a free ride, and the creative sector is urging ministers not to give in to their demands.
ABC calls opt-out unworkable, MEAA proposes fees
The ABC told the committee that Australia's current copyright settings are adequate as they stand. Kate Gilchrist, the broadcaster's head of content and legal operations, said the opt-out system proposed by AI companies would place burdens and costs on rights holders, who would need to monitor continuously whether their copyright material is being used.
For the ABC, that would mean ensuring every site on which it publishes material had opted out. Gilchrist added that she suspected ABC content had already been scraped. She said:
We cannot scour the internet and ensure we are opting out on all of those different sites of publication. It simply does not work
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union covering entertainment and news, has called for an equitable remuneration scheme that would put fees on companies across the AI technology stack. Acting chief executive Adam Portelli said the revenue would support two things:
- •direct payments to creative and media workers whose work contributes to AI systems
- •a cultural fund supporting Australian live entertainment, screen music, public interest journalism and cultural activity
Four companies before the committee
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft were all expected to give evidence on Tuesday afternoon. The committee's hearings are set down from Tuesday until Friday this week.
