Which organisations have acted on disregarding Australia Day celebrations?
The 2023 Australian Open tournament has announced to not celebrate on January 26 and instead stand in solidarity with First Nations peoples.
Tennis Australia stated, “We are mindful there are differing views, and at the Australian Open, we are inclusive and respectful of all.”
The organisation continued, “We acknowledge the palau cell phone database historical significance and deep spiritual connection our First Peoples have to this land and recognise this with a Welcome to Country on stadium screens prior to both the day and night session daily.”
Following the Australian Open, major retail brand, Kmart announced they will not be selling any Australia Day merchandise this year, to ensure it is “inclusive and respectful to all.”
Fashion label, Clothing the Gap, celebrates Aboriginal people and culture, praising Kmart’s decision.
In an Instagram post it stated, “Good to hear @kmartaus making a decision to dump Australia Day products in store. Symbolism matters and in Jan and the lead up to Invasion day it really takes a toil on a lot of mob seeing so much ‘Aussie’ pride merchandise.”
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Major telecommunications company, Telstra, also took its own stance to allow employees to have a choice on how to spend Australia Day. It happens to be the first Australia Day that its 29,000 employees will have the option to choose whether to work on the day which came after an internal vote by the staff in favour of the change.
CEO of Telstra, Vicki Brady stated, “I’m proud that at Telstra, our people can now choose to take 26 January as a public holiday, or work that day and request an alternative day off.”
Following Telstra, Network
10 announced last year that “26 January” was “not a day of celebration.” All Paramount staff, including those at Network 10 and elsewhere, were given the choice not to recognise the date.
The email thread to the staff read, “We recognise that 26 January evokes different emotions for our employees across the business, and we are receptive to employees who do not feel comfortable taking this day as a public holiday,”It’s set to be one of the biggest privacy breaches in Australia’s history. The data breach at Optus has sparked questions about the poor communication by the Optus public relations team.
Ten million Optus customers past and present have been affected by the data breach and customers are expressing their frustration at the telco’s communication.
Customers describe feeling disappointed
because they were not notified by Optus of the data breach, but rather through the media.
The information that has been exposed includes customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses, as well as ID documents, including licence numbers and passport numbers.
Optus did not directly contact the customers and rather put statements on its media webpage to address the situation.
One of them states, “The security of our customers and their data is paramount to us. We did this as it was the quickest and most effective way to alert as many current and former customers as possible, so they could be vigilant and monitor for any suspicious activity. We are now in the process of contacting customers who have been impacted directly.”
One disgruntled customer and Twitter user expressed the following statement.
Thanks for letting your “valued customers” know. Seems your systems were fine to send my bill today. I found out about the data breach because I am watching the football on TV and there was a news update at half time. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!
— Mike Steell (@1truesteelly) September 22, 2022
What is a data breach?
The Australian Government lists a data breach as when personal information is accessed, disclosed without authorisation or lost.
A data breach can harm any individual whose personal information is affected.
Optus outlined four days after the cyberattack that its priority is to communicate with customers whose information has been compromised.
The biggest risk that comes from this cyberattack is identity theft. This occurs when criminals steal information to demand money or gain other benefits such as getting a mortgage, passport or a new phone account.
In response, Optus is offering the
“most affected” current and former customers the option of taking up a 12-month subscription to Equifax Protect at no cost.
Equifax Protect is a credit monitoring and identity protection service that can help reduce the risk of identity theft. Optus states that no passwords or financial details have been compromised.
Customers are complaining that there was no immediate communication about whether or not their data was breached.
One customer spoke to the Guardian Australia and said they received an email two days after the data breach was announced.
In remarks made to Parliament earlier this week, Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, said, “The breach was of a nature that we should not expect to see in a large telecommunications provider in this country.”
It has been alleged that the hacker has posted on an online forum that they will release 10,000 customer records unless a $1 million ransom is paid.