Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition rises to support this bill and the government amendments. The Transport Security Amendment (Security of Australia's Transport Sector) Bill 2024 seeks to strengthen Australia's transport security framework, to ensure government and industry can manage current and emerging risks in a rapidly evolving threat environment.

The debate of this bill is timely. Australia was shocked earlier this month when a teenager was detained after he breached security at Avalon Airport and boarded a flight armed with a shotgun. It is to the great credit of the quick-thinking passengers and crew that no-one was injured in this incident. But it was also a sobering reminder that we cannot take our security for granted.

This bill makes a number of amendments to the Aviation Transport Security Act and the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003 to better protect aviation and maritime transport against unlawful interference. This is all about securing the industry and keeping Australians safe. It does this by amending the definition of 'unlawful interference' to capture a broader variety of acts, including cybersecurity incidents, and introduces mandatory cybersecurity incident reporting. It introduces an all-hazards security framework that will require entities to proactively identify and mitigate risks to physical security, personal security, cybersecurity and supply chain resilience to natural hazards, enhancing testing and compliance measures, strengthening enforcement tools, clarifying port security definitions to ensure relevant infrastructure and operations are covered under the regulations and simplifying regulations for vessels, allowing exemptions for vessels that infrequently travel overseas.

We have a strong legacy in this area. In September 2021, the former coalition government commissioned an independent review into Australia's aviation and maritime transport security settings, led by Ms Kerri Hartland. This review considered Australia's aviation and maritime security settings and made recommendations which sought to ensure Australia's security settings remained fit for purpose and supported Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This bill will amend the relevant acts, to give effect to the elements of the independent review which go to updating legislative and policy frameworks.

This bill comes after the former coalition government also introduced the Transport Security Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2022, which sought to address some of the elements canvassed in the current bill. However, that bill lapsed with the dissolution of the previous parliament.

This went through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. I note that industry stakeholders raised concerns through the committee inquiry into the bill, particularly regarding the regulatory burden and disproportionate impost on regional airports. The PJCIS report recommended the regulations arising from the bill provide greater clarity to industry on the reforms, which should be done as part of a genuine, good-faith consultation with industry. I welcome the commitment we have received from the government that there will be a consultation period of 12 months for the regulations associated with this legislation, followed by a 24-month transition period to implement the reforms. We also welcome the additional clarity provided regarding the tiered all-hazards security obligations. That means that smaller airports will not have certain compliance obligations as they relate to cybersecurity, natural hazards and supply chains.

Industry also raised concerns about duplicated reporting requirements, and I welcome the government's assurance that cyber-incident reports will only need to be made once, through the single reporting portal, to avoid duplication. The PJCIS also recommended that the Department of Home Affairs is adequately resourced to fulfil all of its responsibilities as a regulator. We are concerned that the department has not received additional resourcing, given that its responsibilities will expand with the passage of this bill. So the coalition reiterates the PJCIS's call for government to ensure that the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre is well equipped to make sure they can do their job and protect Australians and the Australian transport and maritime industry. Finally, we welcome the amendments that government is moving to address key recommendations of the PJCIS report which go to the creation of a scalable penalty regime and inserting an additional safeguard to the security directions power by requiring the secretary to notify the minister as soon as practicable after a security direction is issued.

It's clear there are a number of growing threats to Australia's transport sector, including, probably foremost, the risk of cyber incidents. The incident at Avalon also underscores that we still have serious risks posed by individuals, like that person who tried to get a shotgun on the aircraft, and we need to make sure that the legislative framework is fit for purpose to allow the government and industry to address these risks. We've seen this at Heathrow Airport in London, where an electrical substation caught fire, disrupting a lot of flights; passengers were stranded, and take-offs and landings were cancelled, disrupting travel plans for hundreds of thousands of people. It's just a reminder of how government has a really important role in securing and protecting our critical infrastructure as a public good and how our airports, particularly, are vulnerable to external hazards.

This is why we need this bill, this is why the coalition supports this bill and this is why the coalition will always act in the national interest and take the necessary action to keep Australians safe. So we will be supporting this bill, and I commend it to the House.

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