It’s been nearly a week since coordinated cyberattacks targeted some of the nation’s largest superannuation funds, compromising personal data and siphoning money from the retirement savings nest eggs of thousands of people. Yet the response from the Albanese government to a major cybersecurity incident in the nation’s $4.2 trillion compulsory superannuation system has been dismally weak.

There had been five days of radio silence from Cybersecurity Minister Tony Burke about the breach or its victims. Burke had repeatedly refused to comment when approached by The Australian Financial Review. It almost goes without saying he would have been falling over himself to get in front of a television camera if the same thing had happened to a commercial bank.