Optus data breach victims in limbo over Victorian licences

Dan Andrews has apologised for delays with new driver’s licences after the Optus hack but a transport boss refused to say how long Victorians would wait.

Premier Daniel Andrews has apologised to Victorians for any delays experienced while trying to obtain new licences from VicRoads following the Optus cyber attack.

It comes after a public transport chief remained tight-lipped on how long it would take Victorians to receive a new licence after the cyber breach.

Mr Andrews on Wednesday said VicRoads staff were doing their best to provide support to those affected.

“I’d ask for people to be patient and I apologise if there’s any issues with getting those licences to people but we are doing our level best and we’ll continue to do that until the job is done,” Mr Andrews said.

“The most important thing … is to get those who have been affected, get them reissued with a new licence and we’re doing our level best to do that.

“I’ll leave it to VicRoads to manage their call centres and their … customer service issues, and if they need to put on more staff I’d be confident that they would.”

Premier Daniel Andrews has apologised to Victorians for any delays experienced while trying to obtain new licences from VicRoads. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The Premier confirmed the government would be requesting Optus cover the cost of reissuing new licences.

“We’re not going to be seeking (payment) from ordinary Victorians who have been impacted by this,” Mr Andrews said.

“In terms of additional costs that we will have incurred, we will have a conversation with Optus.

“Who knows what that private company’s view will be — I dare say that they will be unlikely to provide us with the funding to clean up their mess — that’s usually the way private companies operate.”

But Metro Transport acting chief Alan Fedda refused to comment on how long Victorians would wait for a new licence.

“I can’t give that number because I don’t know what the scale is,” he told 3AW on Wednesday.

“We’ll advise customers of how long it will take once we work through the formal processes.

“If you fill out that form, we will put a flag on it very quickly and we will work methodically and we will contact you when we are making those changes.”

Mr Fedda said situation was “complex” as they were still waiting for information from Optus.

“We’ve got to remember this is not a VicRoads breach, it’s an Optus breach,” he said.

“Our database hasn’t been breached and we are working quickly as possible to provide assurances to Victorians.

“We are putting the safeguards in place that we can on our system.”

Mr Fedda said he understood why Victorians were anxious about the breach.

“We are asking for people’s patience, we understand there is heightened anxiety at the moment,” he said.

“We want to make sure that any changes we make, don’t create impact for people in the future.

“We’ve got to do it calmly and methodically so we don’t create future impacts or issues for Victorians that we haven’t anticipated.”

Optus revealed about 2.8 million Australian had their identification details stolen. Picture: Gaye Gerard

It comes as the state government scrapped a VicRoads rule that requires evidence of fraudulent activity before a new licence can be issued for those affected.

“We’re working with the federal government to minimise any disruption for those Victorians affected by the Optus data breach,” a Department of Transport spokesman said.

The representative said Victorians affected could apply for a replacement on the VicRoads website.

“We will request Optus repays the cost of the new licences to the Victorian government.”

Prior to the decision, the Premier said the renewal process was designed to be “quite challenging” to protect Victorians from further fraud.

“There needs to be a process to go through to get a licence because that’s obviously a very important form of ID,” Mr Andrews said.

He said the issue was a matter for Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, adding:“ I’m not sure that there’s a role for us in that”.

“Minister O’Neill has been very clear about looking at whether there’s legislation, whether there’s things that can be done to further protect people’s privacy,” he said.

The move follows calls from NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello for Optus to provide affected customers with proof so that new licences can be issued.

“Optus needs to say to those customers … ‘you need to have your licence replaced, it’s as simple as that,” he told Sydney radio station, 2GB.

“This should have been organised days ago.”

The hacker behind the breach, who has claimed the stolen data has been deleted, previously released the private information of 10,000 customers.