Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

SCH () (): My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on why the government's strong cybersecurity initiatives are important to support and protect seniors from cybersecurity threats, and what are the threats to senior Australians posed by different approaches?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. One of the reasons that the coalition government always works hard to manage the economy well is that we want to pay for essential services. We want to spend more money each year, which we do, on health and education, and we want to spend more money helping senior Australians, through the tax system. We don't want Labor's retirees tax and all of the taxes that will be shoved onto older Australians in particular. We want to help older Australians who have worked hard, whether they're self-funded retirees, part-pensioners or pensioners. We don't want to see older Australians being ripped off online and we don't want to see older Australians being ripped off again by the Labor Party.

We have invested a quarter of a billion dollars into strengthening the foundations of our cybersecurity and in building our nation's cyber-resilience. Last month, the government opened the Australian Cyber Security Centre. It provides a 24/7 global watch to support the public by providing a single point of contact in which a cyber-incident can be reported. We want to say to all Australians, particularly older Australians—as they use internet banking, as they converse online, as they use social media, as they answer their emails—we want people to think twice before they provide any details online. Banks will not send through emails that require people to click through and provide passport or user ID information. In 2017 alone, we had 200,000 scams reported to the ACCC, to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network and to other federal and state based agencies.

This problem is not going to go away. The government wants to support older Australians as they converse and transact business online. We want to make sure that we can provide every assistance to keep people safe online. This government is doing a lot to keep senior Australians safe, whether it is at our borders, whether it is through the work of the Australian Federal Police or the agencies within the Home Affairs portfolio. If Australians have any concerns about online activity there is the ability to call the ACSC, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, on 1300 292 371.