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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lauded late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe for being integral to establishing the Quad security dialogue.

Mr Albanese invoked Mr Abe's work advancing common interests in the region when speaking of the importance of Australia's relationship with Japan and the United States.

The prime minister met with Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida and US vice president Kamala Harris ahead of the funeral in Tokyo.

Mr Albanese thanked the US for its interest in, and support for, the region.

"We live in uncertain times, there is strategic competition. It is something we are very conscious of in the Pacific," he said.

Ms Harris pledged to work towards the "combined goal of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific".

She also lauded Australia's new emissions reduction target, saying Mr Albanese "received admiration" for his climate goals.

The US recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act, providing hundreds of billions of dollars on climate action.

"We believe the combination of the two will accelerate the work our two nations can do," she told the prime minister.

"That will be to the benefit of the people of our two nations and the benefit to people around the world."

Speaking at the start of a bilateral meeting with Mr Kishida, Mr Albanese said the two nations were working towards a free and open Indo-Pacific.

"(It) is so important we continue to work together and to work with our partners as well to advance the common interest," he said.

Mr Albanese offered his condolences for the death of Mr Abe, saying there was a high-level attendance from Australia "to pay our respects and show our respects to not just his family but to the people of Japan."

Mr Albanese is in Tokyo with former prime ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull for the state funeral for Mr Abe who was assassinated in July.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape also travelled with Mr Albanese.

They last met in June in Madrid at the Asia-Pacific partners meeting during the NATO summit.

Mr Abe was Japan's longest serving prime minister, from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020.

He was instrumental in elevating Australia's relationship with Japan to a special strategic partnership and central to the formation of the Quad partnership involving his country, Australia, India and the US.

His funeral will take place at the Nippon Budokan.

© AAP 2022

The royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme will focus on the people in charge, promising to hold senior government figures to account.

Hundreds of thousands of people were caught in the Centrelink debacle and the investigation is examining what went so badly wrong.

The commissioner and senior counsel assisting made brief opening statements in Brisbane on Tuesday morning but no witnesses were called.

That won't occur until October when the first two-week public hearing takes place, examining a number of issues including at what point the unlawful debt recovery scheme became automated.

Kicking off in 2015, the scheme falsely accused welfare recipients of owing money to the government and issued debt notices to people identified through a process called income averaging, which compared their reported income with tax office figures.

More than $750 million was wrongfully recovered from 381,000 people.

Commission chair Catherine Holmes - a former Queensland Supreme Court chief justice - said those who were meant to be overseeing the program had questions to answer.

"Many people at different levels of government will be asked to give an account of their role ... with the robodebt scheme," Ms Holmes said.

"But the focus ... will be on those in senior positions, who had or should have had oversight."

Former prime minister Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge and Christian Porter all oversaw the scheme at times.

The scheme was ruled unlawful in 2019 and a settlement of $1.2 billion was reached between robodebt victims and the former coalition government in 2020.

Ms Holmes urged benefit recipients who had been chased for debts through the scheme to come forward with their experiences.

"This was a difficult, stressful time in the lives of thousands of people who were told they had debts to pay," she said.

"I understand many just won't want to revisit the experience, but submissions by those who are prepared to describe what happened in their case will be very helpful indeed, in establishing the detail and the human impact of what occurred."

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten called it "Australia's greatest failure of public administration in social security".

"It was a scheme which said it was targeted for getting Centrelink cheats to pay what they owed ... the truth of the matter is the scheme was unlawful," he told reporters.

"Once a machine ... a faulty algorithm, asserted a debt was owed, the onus was reversed and the citizen had to prove why the government was wrong.

"These were David and Goliath struggles."

Labor promised to call the royal commission before the election and followed through soon after winning.

The inquiry is expected to examine how the scheme came to be and why warning signs were ignored by a string of coalition ministers.

It will also examine the use of third-party debt collectors and others concerns raised.

© AAP 2022

The sensitive details of 10,000 Australian customers have been released by the group behind the massive Optus data breach.

The illegally obtained information includes passport, Medicare and driver licence numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and information about whether a person is renting or living with parents.

A Canberra man contacted by AAP on Tuesday confirmed his data was in the file posted online, including a misspelled street name and specific email he uses for Optus.

He took out a new SIM with the telco in 2021 - in part to avoid using his primary number for WeChat.

"I don't feel vengeful - Optus isn't really going to face that great of a consequence," he told AAP.

"It's the kind of mistake that as soon as it's made once, you can't undo it. It's the permanent stuff that you can't really change: date of birth, full name, driver licence number.

"We'll find out how easy a mistake it was to make and to not make but c'mon, guys. Really?"

A check of 12 random email addresses against records held by Have I Been Pwned found nine had not previously been exposed in breaches.

The information was exposed on a data breach site on the clear web after the group behind the theft said Optus had not met its extortion demand.

It claimed it would release 10,000 records each day until Friday if Optus doesn't pay $1.5 million.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said Optus hadn't done enough to protect customers and its response "needs to be much more diligent."

"It's time for ... a big overhaul of how our data is kept by big corporations," he told the Nine Network's Today.

"We're doing everything we can to apprehend the hackers but there is no doubt the defences of the company were, as I've been informed, inadequate."

Optus says it was the victim of a sophisticated attack - a characterisation dismissed by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil.

A federal police investigation has been launched into the data breach, which has affected 9.8 million Australians.

It will be complex and involve working with the Australian Signals Directorate, overseas police and Optus, said Assistant Commissioner of Cyber Command Justine Gough.

Opposition cyber security spokesman James Paterson told Sky News the government bore some responsibility and criticised its response to the hack as "slow".

Slater and Gordon Lawyers are investigating whether to launch a class action lawsuit on behalf of former and current customers.

Senior associate Ben Zocco said the leaked information posed a risk to vulnerable people, including domestic violence survivors and victims of stalking.

Ms O'Neil launched a scathing attack on Optus in parliament on Monday.

She said responsibility laid squarely at the feet of the telco giant and that the government was looking at ways to mitigate the fallout.

The minister called on Optus to provide free credit monitoring to former and present customers who had their data stolen.

Optus says it will offer "the most affected" customers the chance to take up a one-year subscription to credit monitoring service Equifax Protect at no cost.

"Please note that no communications from Optus relating to this incident will include any links as we recognise there are criminals who will be using this incident to conduct phishing scams," a statement said.

Payment details and account passwords have not been compromised.

© AAP 2022