Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians have every right to be concerned about the Optus and Medibank data breaches, which have exposed the sensitive information of thousands of people and businesses. Of course, they rightly expect the Australian government to do everything it can to respond to such cyberattacks. But I have to tell you, this motion is simply absurd. For those on the other side to come in here and make such a brazen, politicised attempt to pull the wool over the Australian people's eyes is just astounding. Previous speakers have claimed that the Morrison government passed significant legislation to protect Australians from cybercriminals. Really? Then how do they explain these breaches? Why did their significant legislation fail to protect Australians and critical infrastructure?

I know why it failed. The former minister for home affairs—the same person who moved this motion—knows why it failed. When the breaches occurred, she along with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton led a conga line of shadow ministers and all the political puppet-show opposition speakers on this motion who have been seeking to ascribe blame to the new government and the minister while avoiding any responsibility. It was the member for McPherson, when she was home affairs minister, who switched on the cyber incident and critical infrastructure register reporting obligations for the critical infrastructure sectors on 8 April 2022. So far so good, but here's the kicker: it was her and the Morrison government that decided to leave out the telco sector. They left out telecommunications. That meant not only did they leave the door unlocked in this very dangerous cybersecurity neighbourhood when there is a rise of cyberattacks and cybercriminals, they left the door wide open, they left the backdoor open, they left the windows open.

The former government told the intelligence and security committee they would turn their mind to it if their existing obligations under the telco act were assessed as being unsuitable. But rather than proactively assessing the suitability of obligations on telcos, in classic form, of this opposition when they were in government, they kicked it into the long grass. So when the Optus breach happened response powers could not deployed to support Optus to respond to the incident. It was not just the former Minister for Home Affairs who was responsible, despite her brazen attempt through this motion to absolve herself of responsibility, the former Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher did not switch on the obligations for the telecommunications sector under the SOCI Act either. He should've been well informed—

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