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A NASA spacecraft with specialist guidance from Australian tracking systems has crashed into a deep space asteroid in a dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock slams into Earth.

The multimillion-dollar rocket collided head-on with an asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 9.15am (AEST) on Tuesday, in what was the world's first full-scale planetary defence test.

The 570-kilogram spacecraft named Dart and the small asteroid known as Dimorphos crashed into one another at high speed as part of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.

The test is to determine if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course.

The NASA bunker broke out into cheers and applause as the test was deemed a success.

"We've been talking about the images we're going to see ... and I think they exceeded my expectations," DART coordination lead Nancy Chabot told the NASA livestream on Tuesday.

"This was a really hard technology demonstration to hit a small asteroid we've never seen before and (we did) it in such spectacular fashion."

Australian scientists were part of the international team working to hit the asteroid 11 million kilometres away from Earth.

The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex received the final signals from the spacecraft as it approached and impacted Dimorphos.

It also captured images and data from a cubesat module, which had already separated from Dart.

"The team has been training for nearly two years for this mission," Glen Nagle from the CSIRO NASA tracking station told AAP.

"They just did a spectacular job maintaining that contact right throughout, helping return spectacular images.

"I couldn't be more proud of our team here at the CSIRO. They have made history."

The European Space Agency's deep space tracking station in Western Australia also supported the mission.

During the final stages, its 35-metre antenna at New Norcia received data from the spacecraft that will be used by scientists to estimate the mass of the asteroid, surface type and impact site.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson commended the international team's successful test.

"It's going to teach us how one day to protect our own planet from an incoming asteroid," he told the NASA livestream on Tuesday.

"I really look forward to learning all about what's happening from the observatories, so they can tell us about the changes in this asteroid's orb."

While no known asteroid larger than 140 metres in size has a significant chance of hitting Earth for the next 100 years, it's estimated only about 40 per cent have been identified to date.

In the coming weeks, the DART team will learn whether the collision interfered with the asteroid's orbit.

"There's still a lot of information for us to return for the scientists to then do further analysis," Mr Nagel said.

"There are still weeks and months ahead of data to get back and probably years ahead for the mission scientists to be able to determine the results of today's exciting events."

© AAP 2022

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The British royal family and their households are returning to official duties as the period of official mourning in memory of the late Queen ends.

The royal family has only carried out official duties where appropriate since the Queen's death on September 8 and its members have dressed in black as a mark of respect when in public.

They will carry out their normal official roles in full from Tuesday after observing the seven-day period of mourning.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will visit Wales for the first time since taking up their titles.

The royal couple had promised to visit at the earliest opportunity following the death of the Queen and return hoping to begin "deepening the trust and respect" they have with the people of Wales.

The pair's last official visit to Wales was as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Cardiff Castle in June, where rehearsals for the Platinum Jubilee concert took place.

Charles carried out one official engagement during royal mourning - a telephone audience with the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Thursday on the eve of his tax-cutting mini-budget.

The King travelled to Scotland after the Queen's funeral last Monday and could remain at his home of Birkhall into early October, following the tradition set by the late monarch.

The Queen would normally spend 10 weeks at her Scottish home during summer, returning to London as the autumn session of Parliament began.

Planning is under way for Charles' coronation, expected to be held next year.

© PAA 2022

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Hundreds of thousands of people were caught in a huge Centrelink stuff-up and now a major investigation will examine how things went so horribly wrong.

A royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme is preparing to hold its first public hearing.

The commissioner and senior counsel assisting will make brief opening statements but no witnesses will be called in Brisbane on Tuesday.

The unlawful debt recovery scheme started in 2015 and falsely accused welfare recipients of owing money to the government.

The scheme automatically issued debt notices to people identified through a process called income averaging, which compared their reported income with tax office figures.

Similar techniques had been used in the past but the scale of the robodebt scheme was unprecedented.

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

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.

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 Centerlink 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 commission will be chaired by former Queensland Supreme Court chief justice Catherine Holmes.

Mr Shorten said the inquiry would 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.

Anthony Albanese called the robodebt scheme a "human tragedy" when he revealed the inquiry's terms of reference in August.

"It is vital so that we get to the bottom of how robodebt came about so that we can ensure that it can never ever happen again," the prime minister said.

"People lost their lives. Every single one of my local constituents and every member of parliament can tell stories like this"

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been a vocal critic of the commission, describing it as a political witch-hunt and a tool for Mr Albanese to "get square with Scott Morrison".

© AAP 2022

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The sensitive details of 10,000 Australian customers have reportedly been released by the hackers behind last week's massive Optus data breach.

The illegally obtained information includes passport and driver's licence numbers, dates of birth and home addresses, according to cyber security researcher and writer Jeremy Kirk from ISMG Corp.

Mr Kirk, who says he has been in contact with those responsible for the attack on the telco, said they were also threatening to release the same number of records every day until a $1.5 million ransom is paid.

"Bad news. The Optus hacker has released 10,000 customer records and says a 10K batch will be released every day over the next four days if Optus doesn't give into the extortion demand," he tweeted on Tuesday morning.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said Optus needed to do better.

"Based on what I've been told, Optus hasn't done enough ... to protect their customers and their follow up needs to be much more diligent," he told the Nine Network's Today.

"I think it's time for ... a big overhaul of how our data is kept by big corporations.

"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."

Mr Shorten said the hack raised questions about how much of people's data big companies should keep and for how long.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told the ABC on Monday the attack was not "sophisticated".

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

Operation Hurricane has been established by the AFP to identify the people behind the breach, as well as prevent identity fraud of those affected.

Assistant Commissioner of Cyber Command Justine Gough said the investigation into the source of the data breach would be complex.

The task force will work with the Australian Signals Directorate, overseas police as well as Optus.

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 against Optus on behalf of former and current customers.

Class actions 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 the telco to provide free credit monitoring to former and present customers who had their data stolen in the breach.

Optus has announced it will be providing the most affected current and former customers with a free 12-month credit monitoring subscription to Equifax Protect.

Payment details and account passwords have not been compromised.

© AAP 2022