Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

and she's very intimately involved in the debate and the discussion about these subjects. Unfortunately, she is right in her description because, when we arrived in office a year ago, we found cybersecurity in an absolute mess. That is a serious problem for our country because anyone involved in this space can tell you that cybersecurity is one of the most important national security challenges we face. We've got a packed public gallery today. It is statistically probable that every person up there or a member of their family has been the victim of a data breach or a cyber attack over previous years. Given how that was left, I can understand why those opposite don't want to have their record questioned. I say particularly to the opposition leader who sits opposite me and who likes to present himself as a bit of a tough guy that we know we had no cybersecurity minister under the previous government. The opposition leader was the home affairs minister for much of their time in government. This national security matter is in a mess, and there is no-one more responsible for that mess than the opposition leader.

This has had real consequences for our country. We had the National Australia Bank tell us a year ago that they are subjected to 50 million cyber attacks a month, and the Australian Taxation Office is subjected to three million cyber attacks a month. So our focus over this last year has been trying to clean up the mess left by those opposite and to set us on a path for doing better as a country. That's why we've set up 'hack the hackers', a task force of Australian Federal Police and Australian Signals Directorate officers—a hundred people who are out there finding people who are seeking to do Australians harm and trying to hack back. We've taken leadership of a global ransomware initiative for the first time. Australia is trying to coordinate the actions of countries around the world who share those same threats. We have declared 82 systems of national significance—things like our electricity grid and the providers of water—to make sure that they are taking their cybersecurity responsibilities seriously. We've begun national cyber exercises for the first time, where industries around this country are coming together to work out how they will cope with these challenges.

This is just what has been done over this previous year, but there is so much more to come. A really important moment for the country on this matter will be the release of the cybersecurity strategy a little later this year. There is huge focus and energy and resolve on this matter for the first time. We're cleaning up the mess left by those opposite, but most importantly, we're making sure that in this internet age we're providing proper safety and security for our constituents.

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