Tanya Plibersek and Barnaby Joyce criticize Optus’ communication with customers

Tanya Plibersek has blasted the telecommunications company for being able to provide customers with their bills but not inform them if their personal details had been stolen.

“One of the real problems is Optus’ lack of communication, both with its customers and with the government,” the environment minister told Sunrise.

“I don’t think the company is doing a particularly good job with its customers or giving the government the information it needs to keep people safe.”

Optus is doing damage control after discovering the personal information of 9.8 million customers, including 2.8 million people whose driving licenses and passports were compromised.

The embattled telecoms company has agreed to a government request to pay the cost of replacing passports after agreeing to do the same for replacement driving licences.

Over the weekend, ads were placed in national newspapers with an apology, in which the company promised to restore the trust of customers.

But Nationals grand prize winner Barnaby Joyce questioned why the company was so careless with customer data in the first place.

“Those in the know say it wasn’t a very sophisticated way to get information on Optus,” he told Sunrise.

“Why can’t they protect your privacy and reach out to people and say we have a real problem here and be careful?”

It comes as tensions between the government and Optus reached boiling point on Sunday after it accused teclo of failing to co-operate over the loss of Medicare and Centrelink information.

More than 37,000 Medicare numbers were exposed in the data breach.

The Australian Federal Police have launched two investigations into the hack and are being assisted by the FBI.

Originally published as Optus has been criticized for its lack of communication with customers, the government