Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and I thank him for his service to our nation. Clearly, the way that we live and work today is very much dependent on our online connectivity, and that's why this government is investing close to $1.7 billion in the Australian Cyber Security Strategy 2020. To put it in quite simple terms, the strategy is all about ensuring that government, businesses and individuals are aware and are engaged in protecting themselves from the threat of cybercrime. We've all seen how devastating it can be when a critical system is taken offline. The impact of the pipeline attack in the United States last month was a prime example and a very good example of the impact on businesses and also on individuals. That's why this government is introducing some groundbreaking laws that will greatly strengthen the security and resilience of our nation's critical infrastructure and of our supply chains.

This legislation will ensure that the systems that Australians rely on every single day—that includes things like our airports, hospitals, energy grids, water and banking—will have a higher degree of protection and capability to enable them to respond to an attack. These reforms are, in fact, a world first. No other country is doing as much as Australia is to protect its critical assets from attack.

But it's not just about protection; we are also proactively going after those criminals who target our criminal systems and our businesses online. In fact, this government has a very strong and a very clear message to any cybercriminals who are out there operating on the dark web or hiding behind web encryption, and that is to consider themselves to be on notice: the full extent of Australia's intelligence and law enforcement capabilities are being aimed directly at them. The Morrison-McCormack government is tackling this in a very strong and very practical way. This involves us combining the forces of our very outstanding agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Signals Directorate, through the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

Clearly our businesses have a very important role to play in this. We are very committed to making sure that not only governments but businesses and individuals are proactively taking steps to ensure that they are able to protect themselves online. This is a two-way street, and we call on businesses to play their part, to make sure that they are protecting their online assets as they do their physical assets. (Time expired)

See this speech in context