Latest news with #OAIC
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Surge in refusals for freedom of information undermines trust in Australian government, watchdog warns
The Australian government is refusing freedom of information requests at a rate not seen for a decade, data shows, prompting concerns for transparency and accountability. Data held by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the watchdog overseeing the FoI system, revealed the proportion of FoI requests being completely refused has shot up to 27% in the December 2024 quarter. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email That is the highest level since at least 2014-15, historical records show. The OAIC said it is aware of the rising refusal rate and is monitoring the situation. 'There are some clear opportunities for improvement for the commonwealth FoI system that we are alive to as the regulator and monitoring,' a spokesperson said. 'This includes refusal rates.' The skyrocketing refusal rate has prompted concern among transparency advocates. Transparency International Australia chief executive officer, Clancy Moore, said the FoI system was an essential tool in ensuring accountability and integrity, but refusal rates suggested 'important information about the functioning of government is being kept from everyday Australians'. 'Given the Albanese's government commitment to transparency, open government and integrity, there is a clear argument to introducing stronger consequences for unlawful refusals, increase funding to the FoI teams and the OAIC, and continue work to foster a culture of openness and transparency in the public sector,' he said. The commonwealth has improved its performance in other areas of the FoI system. In the last three years, it has improved the speed of its decision making, partly reversing some significant declines between 2019 and 2022. It is now processing 75% of FoIs within the required time limit, up from 70% in 2021-22. The federal government is also releasing more FoIs in full than its state and territory counterparts. It is continuing to reduce the costs charged to applicants for processing FoIs. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The OAIC said FoI should be a core business for government departments. 'We would like to see government agencies embrace it as something they need to do well to get the community's trust and confidence,' a spokesperson said. The OAIC is now intervening to review refusal decisions at a record rate, conducting merit reviews in 207 cases in 2023-24. It said it planned to increase its effectiveness as a regulator of FoI, promote open government, and improve the ability of government agency's to respond to FoI requests. 'The right to participate in government decision making through access to information and to hold government to account is one of the fundamental features of our democratic system of government,' the spokesperson said. 'The FoI Act recognises that the information government holds is a national resource and is managed for public purposes, and that public access to it should be prompt and at the lowest reasonable cost.'
Arab News
14-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Algeria buys milling wheat in tender, traders say
HAMBURG/PARIS: Algeria's state grains agency OAIC has bought milling wheat in an international tender which closed on Wednesday, European traders said. Purchases were initially reported at around $244.50 a metric ton cost and freight (c&f) included, they said. The precise size of the purchase in tonnage terms was not initially clear. But preliminary trader estimates were of a large purchase of between 600,000 and 700,000 metric tons. Reports reflect assessments from traders and further estimates of prices and volumes are still possible later. The tender sought a nominal 50,000 metric tons but Algeria often buys considerably more than the indicative volume. Sellers can supply wheat from a range of approved origins. The wheat is sought for shipment in two periods from the main supply regions including Europe: July 1-15 and July 16-31. If sourced from South America or Australia, shipment is one month earlier. Algeria is a vital customer for wheat from the European Union, especially France, but Russian and other Black Sea region exporters have been expanding strongly in the Algerian market. Traders say a diplomatic rift between France and Algeria led the grains agency to tacitly exclude French wheat and trading companies from its purchase tenders, with relations between the two countries remaining tense.
SBS Australia
13-05-2025
- Business
- SBS Australia
Australia had a record year of data breaches, these sectors were hit hardest
A cybersecurity expert says data breaches appear to be on the rise in Australia, as businesses store more and more sensitive information. Source: Getty The number of data breach reports in Australia went up by 25 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year. The 1,113 breaches recorded were mainly experienced by health service providers and the government, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The latest Notifiable Data Breaches Report: July to December 2024 found 69 per cent of the data breaches were due to malicious or criminal attacks, with 29 per cent derived from human error. Annan Boag, general manager, regulatory intelligence and strategy for the OAIC said the data reflects the "continuing information security challenges" Australia has faced since reporting began in 2018. "Cyber risk is increasingly sophisticated and even entities with the strongest defences may experience a data breach," he said in a statement. Data presented in the report reveals that most personal information compromised in the breaches was contact information, followed by identity information, financial details and health information. The majority of reported breaches affected fewer than 5,000 people each, but two breaches impacted between 500,000 and one million people. The sectors that reported the highest number of data breaches were health service providers, followed by the Australian government and finance. Last year was also a big year for financial scams. Australians lost nearly $319 million in 2024 to hundreds of thousands of scams, with investment scams the most financially damaging, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Professor Toby Murray, from the school of computing and information systems at the University of Melbourne, said the overall trends were not surprising. "There is increased malicious activity, there's more hacking going on, there's more data being stolen. Some of that's because there's just more data," he told SBS News. "Businesses are collecting more and more data, and it's more and more valuable. And so, there's more reason for malicious actors to want to steal that data." However, he also said increased reporting could be a good thing, as it represents that data breaches are becoming more detectable than in previous years. Murray added it's hard to determine why health service providers reported the highest number of data breaches, but indicated there are major challenges the sector faces. "Often the data that is being collected and managed in healthcare settings is not only quite private and personal, but it's often stored in a range of different systems," he said. "Getting all of those systems to work well together where there aren't security holes is, of course, a major challenge, especially in an area like health where the volume and the different types of data that are being managed there are so wide." Once data has been stolen, criminals might then attempt to ransom that information back to the entities it was stolen from, Murray explained. A majority of Australians leave their sensitive data in the hands of the country's health service providers, whether public or private. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals that in 2022-23, over 22 million people had at least one Medicare-subsidised general practitioner attendance. In a statement on 5 March, federal health minister Mark Butler said a total of 14.7 million Australians hold private health insurance cover and accessed more than $23.5 billion in health and medical benefits paid by insurers in 2023. While the responsibility largely falls to the organisations storing your data, like hospitals and government agencies, there are steps you can take to improve your data security. "One way to guard against that sort of threat is to make sure that you have got two-factor authentication enabled for your online accounts. And that's something that we are seeing increasingly being offered by organisations and being taken up by consumers," Murray said. "The other thing that individuals can do is make sure that they are not reusing the same passwords for multiple websites. "Having different logins means that if one of your passwords is compromised, you can reduce the chance of a hacker logging in with that same password elsewhere and causing further damage." Finance Scams Phishing Australia Share this with family and friends
Hans India
04-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Odisha govt signs MoUs for agri growth
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday signed MoUs with four corporations for the development of agriculture and support to farmers for the 2025-26 financial MoUs were signed by the State Agriculture department with Odisha Agro-Industrial Corporation (OAIC), Odisha Agriculture Promotion and Capital Investment Corporation Limited (APICOL), Odisha State Seed Corporation Limited (OSSC) and Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation Limited (OSCDCL) in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh partnership with OSSC aims to strengthen the seed production and supply chain. The Agriculture department will further strengthen farmers by ensuring a timely supply of certified seeds, an official the collaboration, both parties will work together to promote seed replacement and varietal improvement through a coordinated farmer awareness this, a turnover target of Rs 56 crore has been set, the official said. Similarly, OAIC has set a target of purchasing 45,000 tonnes of fertiliser, and pesticides worth Rs 20 crore, 7,000 tractors, 1,000 power tillers and other agricultural machinery, The corporation will set up 5,200 electric-powered small lift irrigation projects, 4,800 solar-powered water tanks and 1,000 shallow tube well will also spend Rs 30 crore for construction work for the current financial year, and a total turnover of Rs 1,000 crore has been targeted for the corporation, the official said. The MoU with APICOL was signed to create 6,500 business enterprises and provide subsidies worth Rs 250 crore, of which Rs 200 crore is meant for Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) and Rs 50 crore for a cold storage support scheme, he said. Accordingly, in the 2025-26 financial year, the Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation will take up 500 hectares of hybrid cashew replanting programme and maintenance of trees over more than 1.336.22 hectares to strengthen the cultivation in Odisha, the official said. In addition, it has a target to produce 35 lakhs hybrid cashew grafts from its existing 20 nurseries, he the programme, Singh Deo felicitated the managing directors of OAIC and APICOL for their outstanding performance in the last financial the letter of appreciation, he said all the affiliated corporations have shown excellent performance, and the path of progress should continue further. The Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment department is one of the prominent departments that has spent 94.7 per cent of the approved budget, Singh Deo said.'We are fully committed to the progress and development of farmers,' he added.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Agri dept signs MoUs with 4 corporations to boost farmer devpt
Bhubaneswar: The agriculture and farmers' empowerment department on Friday signed MoUs with four corporations for FY 2025-26 for development and welfare of farmers. The entities are Odisha Agro-Industrial Corporation (OAIC), Odisha Agriculture Promotion and Capital Investment Corporation Limited ( APICOL ), Odisha State Seed Corporation Limited (OSSC), and Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation Limited (OSCDCL). Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Deputy CM Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, who holds the portfolio of agriculture and farmers' empowerment, was present during signing of the MoUs. "We are fully committed to the progress and development of farmers," he said. As per the deal, OAIC has set a target of purchasing 45,000 tonnes of fertilisers, organic fertilisers and pesticides worth Rs 20 crore, 7,000 tractors, 1,000 power tillers and other agricultural machinery. Additionally, it aims to implement 5,200 electric-powered small lift irrigation projects, 4,800 solar water tank projects, 1,000 shallow tube well projects, and allocate Rs 30 crore for construction this year. A total turnover of Rs 1,000 crore has been targeted. Similarly, the partnership with OSSC aims to strengthen the seed production and supply chain in the state. The department will further empower farmers by ensuring the timely supply of certified seeds. Under this collaboration, both parties will work together to promote seed replacement and varietal improvement through a coordinated farmer awareness campaign. For this, a turnover target of Rs 56 crore has been set. APICOL aims to create 6,500 business enterprises and provide subsidies worth Rs 250 crore. Out of this, Rs 200 crore is allocated for the Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) and Rs 50 crore for the cold storage support scheme. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In FY 2025-26, the OSCDCL will undertake a 500-hectare hybrid cashew re-plantation programme and maintain trees over more than 1,336.22 hectares to strengthen cashew cultivation. Additionally, it has set a target for the production of 35 lakh hybrid cashew grafts from its existing 20 clonal nurseries. Principal secretary of the department, Arabinda Kumar Padhee, was also present.
