Prime minister says the contractor's access to a customer's bank records is 'alarming'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was "appropriate" that the two individuals, including a former EY employee, have been charged for allegedly accessing confidential Commonwealth Bank customer records, including those belonging to the prime minister.
The two people, who include a former Ernst & Young (EY) graduate employee, were charged by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the alleged unauthorised access of confidential records of Commonwealth Bank customers.
The AFP alleged that the breach occurred when the EY graduate employee, 21, was on secondment at the Commonwealth Bank.
The employee has since been dismissed from the firm and was charged with unauthorised access to, or modification of, restricted data, along with an additional charge tied to distributing personal information in a manner regarded as menacing or harassing.
The other individual, 25, was charged with one count of unauthorised access to restricted data. Both were granted bail and faced court on Tuesday over the breach.
"It's appropriate that charges have been laid," Albanese told ABC's News Breakfast, while refusing to go into detail because the matter was before the courts.
The prime minister, however, expressed alarm over the situation.
"This is a serious issue. Well, accessing anyone's privacy, any Australian's privacy is alarming," he said. "Let alone someone from a contractor who's not an employee of Commonwealth Bank being able to access that information."
Big Four scandals
This is the latest scandal involving a Big Four consulting firm in Australia following the audit leak scandal faced by KPMG, which resulted in the federal government suspending new contracts with the firm until September.
Albanese said the government will continue to examine these issues closely.
"The behaviour of some of these big accounting firms has been completely unacceptable," he said.
"In some cases it has involved breaches of the law and they need to be held to account, if you'll excuse the pun, because they simply have engaged in behaviour that's not consistent with Australian law or consistent with the way that people would expect big corporations to operate."
